Simon Ponsonby - God is For Us: 52 readings from Romans

Copyright 2013 Simon Ponsonby
This edition copyright 2013 Lion Hudson

The right of Simon Ponsonby to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Published by Monarch Books
an imprint of
Lion Hudson plc
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Road,
Oxford OX2 8DR, England
Email: monarch@lionhudson.com
www.lionhudson.com/monarch

ISBN 978 0 85721 328 0
e-ISBN 978 0 85721 461 4

First edition 2013

Acknowledgments
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version , copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton, a member of the Hodder Headline Group. All rights reserved. NIV is a trademark of International Bible Society. UK trademark number 1448790.

Scripture extracts marke KJV are taken from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press.

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Cover image: Roger Chouler/Lion Hudson

Christian teachers and preachers, leaders and ministers have been waiting years for a good, contemporary, and freshly inspiring work on Romans. Simon Ponsonby was destined to write such a book. Here it is at last, vital, readable, and just what we all needed. Great teaching from a great teacher.

Canon Robin Gamble, Evangelist, Author and Founder of Leading Your Church into Growth

St Pauls rhetorical question to the Romans What does the scripture say? (4:3) has always been the gold standard by which Simon Ponsonby has lived and served the Body of Christ, both as a highly effective pastor-teacher and a rigorous theologian. He writes as he speaks, with great flair and invaluable insight, with perfectly-judged illustrations and not a little humour. Simon tackles the towering truths contained within the letter to the Romans with freshness and immediacy, even with courage; and as always, he causes our hearts to be strangely warmed as he makes us think, even sometimes to think again. This book will fall into the must have category for preachers and teachers and believers alike, and deserves the widest readership possible.

Eleanor Mumford, Co-Founder of Vineyard Churches UK

If I could only choose one person to hear preach the whole way through the Book of Romans, I honestly think Simon Ponsonby would be at the top of my list. Simon is one of the very best communicators of the gospel I know, and reading God is For Us has been my opportunity to sit at the feet of a brilliant theologian, story-teller, pastor and passionate follower of Jesus as they diligently unpack this epic Epistle. Ive loved the opportunity, and have no doubt in my mind that you will too!

Revd Pete Hughes, Pastor Kings Cross Church, Leader New Wine 1830s

Reading a book on Romans that is based on a sermon series makes me think that this is how all biblical commentaries should be written. Simon Ponsonbys engagement with this life-changing, history-making book of the Bible is thoroughly scholarly and unerringly pastoral. It is full of spiritual insight and compassion, with Simons natural touches of humour. This book is for anyone and everyone, and it will open up the treasures of Romans for all who wish to mine them.

Dr Lucy Peppiatt, Theologian, Author, Church Planter, Dean of Studies, Westminster Theological Centre

Like many pastors, I have about two dozen volumes on the book of Romans in my library. This one by Simon Ponsonby will be in my top three of go-to volumes every time I preach Romans! While showing great familiarity with contemporary Romans scholarship, this is a volume aimed not only at the intellect, but also at the heart and will. Ponsonbys God is For Us is incredibly useful for reading as a daily devotional. It also is a treasure trove of preaching and teaching illustrations for pastors and church leaders. Not since Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones produced his Romans series have I read a volume of such powerful, motivating, and inspiring lectures on the book of Romans.

Dr Rich Nathan, Senior Pastor, Vineyard Columbus, Ohio

An erudite piece of work interestingly written that may stand alongside some of the better treatments of Romans. Anyone who wants to learn more about Romans or to teach it should read this book.

Dr R. T. Kendall

For centuries, commentaries on Romans have built on assumptions and preconceptions inherited from previous generations, each layer further burying Pauls original voice. To this calcified deposit comes a biblical scholar at the peak of his game, lifting the accretions of the years with a forensic skill at once breath-taking and utterly compelling. Reading God is For Us is like watching the restoration of some majestic Leonardo mural hidden beneath later paintwork an exhilarating, spine-tingling adventure of wonder and encounter with the New Testaments own masterpiece here revealed as never before. God is For Us is the book this supremely gifted theologian was born to write.

Revd Paul Langham, Author, Bible Teacher, Vicar of Christchurch Clifton

To St Aldates Church family who taught
me so much more than I taught them

Contents

Introduction

I have divided this book into fifty-two short chapters, enough for one a week for a year; or, if you are keen, one a day for fifty-two days. This book on Romans began as a series of sermons preached over twenty months between September 2010 and May 2012 at St Aldates Church, Oxford. I want to thank Charlie and Anita Cleverly for their enthusiastic encouragement of this project, as well as other colleagues at Aldates who vacated the pulpit on Sunday evenings, as well as the congregation who stuck with a sermon series that was uncharacteristically lengthy by modern standards. A friend and respected evangelical leader recently said that if you want to grow a church, you need mini-series of four sermons on current themes to keep people keen. The Vatican have suggested sermons be no longer than eight minutes, and the bishop of Lichfield wants to limit whole services to under fifty minutes. I struggled to preach my sermons each week in under fifty minutes. If short and sweet sermons were in fact what my church wanted, they were gracious enough not to say so and eager enough to turn out weekly for just over a year and a half to study Romans.

I must thank publisher Tony Collins and editors Richard Herkes and Jenny Ward, who had confidence in this project and wrestled my sermons into book format. I am perpetually thankful to God for my dad Jeffrey Ponsonby; he is a model of Berean faithfulness to Gods word (see Acts 17:1012), and who has prayed without ceasing for me as I worked on, and preached through, Romans. Special mention must be made of my great friend Mark Davies, a former SAS sergeant major who, as a new convert, read straight through all of Martyn Lloyd-Joness books on Romans. Our long and strong discussions over the meaning of texts in Romans have been as profitable to me as any single commentary even when we failed to reach consensus.