Bible Streams

Chris, Jo and Alex are back as a trio for episode seven in the Romans series, opening with a read-through of chapter 6 verses 1–14. They set the scene first: Paul has spent chapters 1–4 establishing the universal problem of sin and the inadequacy of the law to deal with it, and from chapter 5 onwards the vocabulary shifts — Jesus is back on the scene, justification language recedes, and life, freedom and reigning take over as Paul moves into the second act of the argument, heading for the crescendo of chapter 8. The chapter's opening question is a piece of Greco-Roman rhetorical technique Paul loves: anticipating your opponent's refutation and defusing it before it lands, necessary in a letter sent halfway across the known world with Phoebe carrying the delivery instructions. The team disagree amiably over how cynical the objection is: Chris and Alex read it as "why bother caring about right and wrong", Jo suspects someone hearing it as a licence to sin deliberately. The first half works through the death/bur