Quotes from Grant R. Osborne

The call to faith and the act of salvation comes entirely from God; faith commitment is both active and passive. Our part is the surrender of the will, the open acceptance of what God has done. It is not a "work" (Eph 2:9), for it is the power of God alone that makes it possible.

We produce nothing but our act of faith.

They have been fulfilled in Christ, so we must determine their theological purposes and apply them to current situations. We need holiness and a proper relationship with God just as they did, and the legal regulations properly understood can help us center on those critical areas of the Christian life.

Our task is to decipher the meaning of the historical-theological text in biblical narrative, not to reconstruct the original event.

Romans has been called the "systematic theology" of the New Testament, and Paul began by exploring the total depravity of humankind in 1:18–3:20.

The universal depravity of humankind demands judgment (1:18–3:20). However, there is hope, and it is the result of the grace and righteousness of God (3:21), who provides salvation by sending his Son to be the atoning sacrifice and make justification for sins possible (3:24–26).

God created the world in the way that he saw fit, and humans should not question the divinely appointed order. All wisdom literature, not just Job, develops this theme (e.g., Is 40:28- 29). Human beings must take their proper place in the cosmos, find their appointed life and make the most of it.

God's justice transcends human frailty, and our duty is to await his answers. Rather than assume the right to determine the laws of God's created order (Crenshaw calls this "Titanism"), we must humbly submit to God's greater wisdom.

what if we spent as much time and money on Bible study as we do our hobbies?

The right hand in Scripture symbolizes power and authority

In AD 57 in the city of Corinth, the Apostle Paul wrote the greatest book ever penned in human history: his letter to the Roman church.

The deep meaning of any text is a buried treasure; all the riches are waiting under the surface. If we learned there was gold deep under our backyard, nothing would stop us from getting the tools we needed to dig it out. Similarly, in serious Bible study all the treasures and riches of God are waiting to be dug up for our benefit.

The focus of Paul's commission is "to call all the Gentiles" to Christ.

If Abraham was justified by faith, not works, then salvation is a free gift from God rather than an obligation on his part.

Evangelism was at the heart of Paul's gospel, but evangelism always leads to discipleship—to a Godward lifestyle.

Pelagius (c. AD 360–418) later espoused the view that we could earn salvation by our works, which Augustine (AD 354–430) and the church rightly deemed a heresy.

I cannot attain righteousness by my own merit or good works. It is a grace-based free gift from God, and it comes only through faith in Christ's blood sacrifice on the cross.

There are two authors of every biblical book: the human author who penned the words, and the divine Author who revealed and inspired every word. While God did not dictate the words to the biblical writers, he did guide their minds so that they wrote their own words under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

This means that when we study the Bible, we should not be satisfied with a cursory reading in which we insert our own meanings into the text. Instead, we must always ask what God intended to say in every passage. But Bible study should not be a tedious duty we have to perform. It is a sacred privilege and a joy.