Romans 1 vs 8 - 32 - Corps Notes - 3
Publication Date: 1973
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Romans 1:8-32
Lesson 3
The all truth that we’re talking about here is the Mystery. All the truth that can be
known. Jesus Christ said he would lead into all truth. And yet Jesus Christ did not know
the Mystery, fantastic. He knew some very important things, you know, regarding what
was coming. He never knew the mystery. Christ, he knew the hope and glory – Gentiles,
fellow heirs of the same body. That’s the mystery. The all truth you find in those seven
church epistles, you know. As I told you they are the curriculum; everything necessary for
the Christian standing and state, his walk. And here you find in those seven what Christ is
unto us and what we are in him. In Romans, dead and risen with Christ; in Ephesians,
seated with Christ; in Thessalonians, with Christ in glory forever. You can’t understand
seated with Christ until you understand that you are dead and risen with Christ. You’ll have
to understand Romans first before you can really walk and understand Ephesians. And
unless you get the first eight chapters of the book of Romans down pat, you will never
understand any of the rest of this stuff either. It’s remarkable how they were practicing the
principles of the Mystery without knowing the Mystery, in the book of Acts; records in
Acts, things that happened in Acts. The Mystery was first revealed to the apostle Paul. On
the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, immediately on that day and after, God would have gone to
the Gentiles if there were people to believe and walk. He couldn’t go beyond what man
believed and what man could receive. And this is why it took them ten, twelve, fifteen
years to get to the household of Cornelius’, as I teach you in the Foundational Class. Has to
be because the church epistles says that; neither Jew nor, what? {Gentile.} Else God would
have been a respecter of what? {Persons.} That’s right, and can’t do it. You see that’s how
you have to be able to put that whole thing together. But it takes a lot more than just a head
knowledge of one little verse here, there and yonder. You never find the Gospel of God
explained in the early chapters, like in Pentecost (Acts 2) in Acts, but you see it in
operation, people born again, speaking in tongues. Never knew really what it was all about,
but they knew it was good. In 1:16-8:39 we have the right believing foundation. This is the
primary foundational stone of the understanding of the Mystery. Without an accurate
knowledge of these chapters and verses you can never rightly believe the revelation in
Ephesians or Thessalonians.
Now, 1:16-5:11. You’ve got them there one under the other, under gospel, see them?
1:16-5:11. I’d put a parenthesis from one to five, with my pen. From one to five, do you
see it? 5:11-1:16, now put a parenthesis, put them together like this. In that section you will
have and write this next to that little parenthesis you made. You didn’t make a parenthesis,
honey. Just now you made a curly cue, you made a square it’s all right with me. Okay,
those verses 1:16-5:11 is where you have to dig to find out what Christ is for us. What
Christ is for us. And I got a capital FOR US. What he is for us. Then right below 5:11 you
have 5:12-8:39, see it? I have written in my margin here, what Christ is in us. That’s what
5:12-8:39 is all about, what Christ is in us. Now, under 1:16-8:39, write believing
foundation says doctrinal. And you have 1:1-6 introduction: the subject of God’s Gospel,
and then 1:7-15 Epistolary. And somebody asked me what it meant, so I wrote it
out:speaking to you by letter. If I speak to you by letter it would be my introduction. More
than that, the word epistolary means to talk or to speak by writing, that’s what it means.
And so in this epistolary section, verse seven is the salutation. So, write the number seven
to the left hand of the “S” on salutation. Did you put it on the right? Okay, you keep her on
the right, then. Either preceding or following prayer 8-10. Parenthesis, very small (his for
them) end of parenthesis. On the word “journey,” 10-13; on the word “ministry,” 14-15.
Now, the next line below says 15:12-16:24. So, behind the word “ministry” you put 15. If
you wrote behind it to begin with you better put a long dash and then write chapter 15:14-
21. Behind journey long dash you write, 22-29. It’s chapter 15:22-29. And then behind
prayer and the words “his for them;” now, on this time you write 30-33, parenthesis
(there’s for him) end of parenthesis. And behind salutation you write chapter 16 verse 1-24.
This chapter one down lower where it says 16, 17 power of what? {God.} And then 1:18
wrath of God. And then 1:19-3:20 is the wrath of God described. And then 3:21-5:11 is the
power of God described and set forth. And it should really have said “set forth as imputed
righteousness.”
The first 8 chapters of Romans – doctrinal: the right believing regarding the
knowledge of ourselves, sin and sins. The Ephesian revelation begins at the ninth chapter
of Romans, giving us the knowledge of God and his purpose in Christ. Righteousness of
God used eight times in chapter one to chapter nine. And I’ve given you the places where
they are used. And the word logizomai, where it’s imputed, reckoned and counted, these
are the words that he used; which simply means perfection of divine righteousness to the
sinner. Twelve times indicating governmental perfection. Reckoned it’s used that many
times, counted that many, imputed at those verses. Next time we meet bring a concordance
along if you got one. Okay? How many of you brought one when you came? Good, bring it
along. I’ll show you a real problem on this in your concordance if I can think about it again.
Okay, now, we really do want to go through that concordance with you. I was going to do
it with you tonight, but Donna Randal [Secretary] has got my notes. She ran off someplace
or something.
Now you can do a little more if you want to. Get an extra piece of paper or turn that
one over. Before you write on the back side of it, let’s once more put it in your head. This
1:18, wrath of God section terminates with 3:20 where the wrath of God is described. Do
you see that? On the front side. 1:18 is wrath and 1:19-3:20 is the wrath of God described.
I want to give you the verses and how they work on the description of the wrath of God.
1:19-2:1: man’s ungodliness stated. Now, underneath that put 1:19, 20: God’s power
known. Indent verse 21 slightly under it. Glory of God rejected, parentheses (corrupted).
I’ll put verse 21 right under verse 21 again. And write the word “consequence,” mental
corruption. Now under that write 22, 23: glory of God degraded. Now, under that put verse
24: body degraded and God abandoned. Put down verse 25: truth of God degraded. Under
that, put verse 26 and 27: consequence – degraded bodily passions. Degraded bodily
passions and God abandonment. Now, put down verse 28 (you’re going to run out of paper
you won’t be able to do what you have to do): knowledge of God rejected. Under that put
28-31: consequence – mental corruption. Under that put verse 32: God’s judgment known.
Man without excuse. Now don’t write anymore, no more writing. Now, we just do pretty
drawings. Look at your paper.
22 and 23 are, what? {Glory of God degraded.}
24? {Body degraded and God abandoned.}
25? {Truth of God degraded.}
26 and 27? {Consequence – degraded bodily passions and God abandonment.}
Right. 22 and 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 just have to have a like this around it. [SHOWS
STUDENTS] not to big now, just stay around it, real close.
You see, you got “glory of God” in 22? What do you have in 25? {Truth of God.} All
right, but you see glory and truth.
In 24 you have what? {Body degraded and God abandoned.}
And in 26 and 27 you have what? {Consequence – degraded bodily passions and God
abandonment.}
Yeah, sure. Now, we’ll go verse 32 at the bottom, see it? Take a little swing all the way
up to 1:19. All the way up to 1:19. That ties together with that, so put yourself an arrow,
whether you want to go up or down, I don’t care.
Now, let’s go on to the next step from the top down. The verse is 21, right? And the
verse 21 is glory of what? {God.} And in verse 28 you have what? {Knowledge of God
rejected.} Those two tie together. Put a line down to them, circle around, get your arrow
right.
Now do you have 28-31 at the bottom and 21 at the top? 21 at the top is consequence –
mental corruption. 28-31 is what? {Consequence – mental corruption.} Tie them together.
This is how that great section from 1:19 or just to verse 32 of chapter one is broken
down. We read this the other night, remember we just went through it. This is what men
like Bois and others, Bullinger, a lot of these men; this is what they call structure. If you
are going to know the scriptures there has to be a uniform structure. And I don’t spend a lot
of time teaching my people structure. It’s something you can just go cockeyed on and
screwed up on. But it’s nice to know that it’s still there. Because, you have to know the
scope you have to know the structure in order to have a true interpretation of the Word
because they all have to fit together. Now, sometimes it’s a little far-fetched you have to
work awful hard on it. But I’ve tried to outline this the best for you that I could. Because,
I’m going to do my best for you in the early part of Romans, then [I] may slough off on
you or something but just show you what’s available in the Word. It’s their confusion on
the Word in Romans that has confused all of the church epistles, so they got it all screwed
up. So, where do they go back to? The gospels. Never, never got the revelation addressed
to the body. I’ll venture to guess in every one of the churches that you’ve attended, the vast
majority of preaching was on the gospels. And if it wasn’t there it would be back in the Old
Testament someplace with condemnation and fear and Ten Commandments and the rest of
the trip. I tell you, it’s been a blind lousy world we are living in. And the reason, well first
of all, Satan blinded people’s eyes. That’s all it can be. So, they never quite saw the book
of Romans. Even men like Calvin, Luther. Those men never really got to it. They got it, a
great deal of it. Praise the Lord what they did get to it. You just got to praise God for any
little bit of light that was available. But they just never quite saw the greatness of it.
And the reason I believe for this, I’ll just share what I think. Maybe don’t make a
lousy bit of difference to the rest of the world what I think, but I sometimes believe, at least,
had Luther and Calvin and John Knox not had to fight for their existence, you know, their
life, this kind of stuff, I believe [that] they would have come to the position that we’re
teaching today because I’ve had freedom not to fight. My life has not been in danger. It’s
been a tremendous life that I’ve had, freedom to study the Word, freedom to dig it.
Luther...John Knox, Calvin, Swinley, those men were fighting the Roman Catholic church,
the system. And the system was the system of inquisition, you know, kill, beat the hell out
of. And this is why they had not enough time in their lifetime to get to it. It is a period of
life that it just takes to understand.
I was talking to someone today; he came in while he was here and rapped awhile. And
he was saying how the three or four years that he lived here at headquarters, off and on,
(He always came in the summer and everything else.) how much this had deepened his
spiritual perception and understanding because he saw it out in the world, you know, where
our people are Advanced Class grads and all of the rest. He still had a greater in-depth
perception of the Word then what he saw out there. The reason for that is it just takes time
kids. It just takes time. You’re not, you don’t get it overnight. Martin Luther and those
fellows went as far as they could go but they never were able to have enough time to really
put it all together.
I’ll try to work out the chapter two, you know, four to eleven and all the way up to
3:20 and finally I’ll work it down to 5:11 for you and then maybe then we’ll see what
happens. But, I want you to take this now and you start, you know, on your own; just read
it. Don’t get hung up on little details. And see if you can begin to see some of this in these
verses. And how it relates one to another and how it ties together. The time we get to 8:39,
you should have the finest knowledge of the book of Romans that any person has ever had,
if we stay put on it. But I’ll pretty well tell you, it might take us to the middle of February
or March till we finish it, that far. But what difference does it make? As long as we get a
good knowledge of it. Because, I’m absolutely convinced that if you understand Romans
and really are able to get the feel of it, the rest of the church epistles don’t need nearly that
much work, because you just get blessed by it. You might want to take your concordances
and see how many times I missed the righteousness of God in the book of Romans. And
remember we’re just going through the eighth chapter now. You might also take your
concordance and see how many times I missed reckon, counted, and imputed. And then try
to figure out what I did and why. Because, as far as I know what I gave you in type copy is
accurate. But you’re going to find a couple more when you look them up in your
concordance. Yeah. The all truth you know is not without exception but without distinction.
Because, there is truth, there is truth into which you are led, which is not written in the
Word. But here’s the Word, look at me. Look at me, here’s the Word, got it? You live
between my two hands. Now you get revelation, word of knowledge, word of wisdom. It
will have to fit between my two hands, right? That’s also truth. But it will always fit in the
all truth of John 16, only it’s an enlargement. Look, it’s very simple to understand. For
instance healing, we know God’s will, right? But the truth that you get is, maybe the
person has a spine out of place or something. Well, that still would be truth but it would fit
right in between the hands, got it? That’s how that stuff works.