The North Church Women

Romans Pt. 1 Week 6: Grace: Peace With God & Assurance of Hope | Romans 5:1–11 | Pam Larson

In Romans 5:1–11, we learned that justification leads to a restored personal relationship with God. In Jesus, we are reconciled and can rejoice in our past redemption, even our present sufferings and our future in glory. Our past is redeemed by the blood of Jesus. Our present is increasingly becoming more like Jesus, and our future is secure.

* Remember and rejoice in all that Jesus has done for you. He died for you while you were still a sinner, declared you righteous, has given you peace with God. Reconciliation leads to rejoicing!

* Recognize and relish your present position: once his enemies, now his friends, given access to grace, joy even in suffering. Reconciliation leads to hope and rejoicing!

* Rest in grace and be reassured in your hope for future joy and glory. Reconciliation leads to eternal rejoicing!

Romans Pt. 1 Week 5: the Promise Rests On Grace | Romans 4 | Kïrsten Christianson

This week Paul offered Father Abraham as an example of how to obtain righteousness with God—through Christ by faith alone. We learned that Abraham’s faith was counted to him as righteousness BEFORE he was circumcised. God made a promise to and covenant with Abraham to redeem the world—both the circumcised AND the uncircumcised—and it would be carried out by Abraham believing God and his promises, not by his own keeping the law. When we are under grace, believing God, then our sin is forgiven and our faith is counted to us as righteousness. Abraham’s faith was/is the model and the pointer to God’s plan for his people.

Romans Pt.1 Week 4: God's Saving Grace in the Death of Jesus | Romans 3:21–31 | Pam Larson

A jeweler puts a diamond on a black velvet background in order to highlight the stunning beauty of the diamond shining all the more brightly against the dark background. The gospel is the same way—it shines at its brightest when seen against the backdrop of the condemnation of sin and death that we deserve. Knowing our desperate condition—that we are under God’s wrath and hopeless without a Rescuer— makes God’s saving grace in the death of Jesus the sweetest news ever.

This week in Romans 3:21-31, we encountered the heart of the gospel. Because Jesus died in our place, those who trust in him are counted as righteous. And God, the Just and the Justifier, is satisfied. He can pardon us completely, so that when he looks at us, he sees the beautiful robe of righteousness that Jesus purchased for us (Isaiah 61:10). 

 

Hoping in God as He Writes Our Kids' Stories

The Jileks share some of the observations they’ve made over the years as college student ministers, providing some helpful considerations for parenting kids through the college transition, as well as how this impacts the parenting of little ones — all while keeping our eyes on Jesus, knowing that He holds our kids and is the author and sustainer of their faith.

Romans Pt.1 Week 3: None is Righteous | Charisse Compton | 2.12.25

No one gets a pass. Not the flagrantly immoral and not the private idolater. This is Paul’s argument so far: God judges each person—Jew or Gentile—according to his works. The standard for judging those works is God’s righteousness, explicitly stated in his laws. Both Jews and Gentiles have failed to keep God’s righteous standard. 

What should we do when we hear a word like this? Paul already told us. Stop our mouths. Make no more excuses. Hear the oracles of God as his mercy to us. Conviction over sin is such a gift. If you feel conviction, rejoice! That is a sign of life in you. God is so kind to expose the ugly hypocrisy in our hearts so that we can repent of it and be free of it. 

But next week we'll see that following this universally devastating revelation of God’s wrath on all unrighteousness comes the glorious revelation of a righteousness APART from the law. Your works will never measure up to the righteous standard of God’s law. But there is another way… the way of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation from his just wrath, and it is the best news you could ever hear.

Romans Pt.1 Week 2: God's Wrath on Unrighteousness | Romans 1:18–32 | Amy Katterson

In God’s mysterious grace, the starting point for hope is to face our desperate, hopeless condition. Our problem is the stain of sin, which we can never scrub away. Sin of exchanging the glory of God for a love of ourselves—that terrible exchange, which trickles down into a hundred other fruits of wickedness.

But there was another exchange. The holy, almighty God we rejected, He made another exchange. The righteous Judge took all the eternal wrath and punishment that our sins deserve, and He poured it out, not on us, but on His beautiful, perfect Son. And the one Man who always treasured the glory of God–His perfect record is draped over us, if we receive Him.

Our sin for Christ’s righteousness. This is the breath-taking exchange of the gospel. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake, he [God] made him to be sin who knew no sin [Jesus], so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Romans Pt.1 Week 1: The Gospel Reveals God's Righteousness | Romans 1:1–17 | Pam Larson

This week we heard the "Overture to Romans” (Paul’s introduction in Romans 1:1–17). As in a musical before the curtain rises, the overture sets the mood and introduces motifs that are developed later in the play, and you hear familiar melodies from each scene or episode.

Introduction to Romans Seminar w/Q&A | Dr. Andrew Naselli 1.25.25

Dr. Naselli gives us a powerfully rich "jet tour" of the book of Romans.

For more extensive information, we recommend Dr. Naselli's excellent book, Romans: A Concise Guide to the Greatest Letter Ever Written.

Feasting on God’s Grace: Living Bread and Water | Kristin Tabb | MOMS

Start the new year by considering how we can feast on the life of Jesus by thirsting for prayer and consuming God’s Word. We come to him so that we may have life!

 

You can access Kristin's recommended resources here.

Judges Week 10: A Nation in Decline | Judges 19–21 | Charisse Compton

Judges concludes with a deeply sobering illustration of what the kingdom of this world is like. While the author doesn’t shrink from revealing the horrors of what humanity becomes when they reject God as king, he nonetheless ends his history of the judges on a hopeful note. He invites us to look through the gloom of “those days” to a new day when “the kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his [King], and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15).

That day is coming! And it comes courtesy of a willing Savior—and now enthroned King—whose Father sent him out the doors of heaven into the arms of a worthless mob intent on doing him harm. While we “worthless fellows” blindly stumbled around seeking other saviors, Jesus quietly laid down his life for ours. Now freed from sin’s tyranny, previously “worthless fellows” have become citizens of Heaven’s kingdom, anticipating the day when all the earth does what is “right” in God’s eyes.