Video Notes:

• Chapter 1 introduced the book and its theme, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation by which the righteousness of God is made manifest by faith for faith for those who believe.
• Chapter 1 then starts the argument that all are sinners and would justly be condemned for their sins and cannot save themselves by their works or obedience to the Law. This continues through chapter 4
• Chapter 5 makes it clear that we are saved by grace through faith apart from our works.
• No, chapters 6-8 will address the life of the Christian. This is a life characterized by a “now, but not yet” reality.
• This is, in part, why it’s better to think of your salvation as an ongoing, continuous act of God rather than a once and done event.
• Going back to chapter 5, we ended with the statement that God gave the Law that the trespass might increase and that God’s grace also increases to cover the trespass. This leads to the question, “Should I sin even more so God’s grace increases even more?” 
• One of the things early Christians were accused of (and Lutherans still are accused of) is proclaiming a message that encourages sin or at least allows the Christian to sin with abandon. This isn’t true.
• Paul answers the question of whether we should sin even more not with Law, but Gospel. You have died to sin and been raised in Christ in your baptism, individually and personally, and have a new life to walk in. In other words, you’re not your old, dead, sin-enslaved self anymore. You are a new creation.
• In baptism you have received a new identity and now you get to live in that new identity.
• Not only do we have a new life to live in, but the Holy Spirit gives us the power to resist sin now.
• This speaks to the passive nature of baptism. God is the one working in baptism, we have been baptized, we were buried, all this is being done to us.