“Each element is significant. God will crush Satan, he will crush him under the feet of the faithful, and he will do it speedi­ly. The promise of a victorious issue undergirds the fight of faith.” (John Murray, The Epis­tle to the Romans, Vol. 2, p. 237).

“[I]n Paul (as in the whole of the Scripture) ‘peace’ refers not only in the first place to disposi­tion, but is the declaration of the all-embracing gift of salva­tion, the condition of shalom, which God will again bring to unrestricted dominion. It is the peace that is to reign when ‘the God of peace will soon crush Satan under the feet’ of his people (Rom. 16:20.” (Herman Ridderbos, Paul: An Outline of His Theolo­gy, p. 184.)

“[T]hen only [at the coming of the Messiah] were opened the treasures of ce­lestial wisdom, when God appeared to his ancient peo­ple through his only-begot­ten Son, as it were face to face, all shadows having been done away.” (John Calvin, Commentary on Romans, at 16:26).

Quotes used preparation for the 101 Bible Study meeting in Astoria on June 22. This will conclude our study of Romans. See the Study Notes page for a copy of the handout.

• What do butterflies have to do with your bodies?
• Why does Paul call you to be a living sacrifice?
• What are your spiritual gifts, and how can you recognize them?

The 101 Bible Study explores these and other questions as we study Romans 12. The study meets this Friday, 6:30 p.m., in a home near Astoria. Call 971/238-6101 for more details. You are invited. Questions are welcome!

“The basis and spring of sanctification are union with Christ, more especially union with him in the virtue of his death and the power of his resurrection.” (John Murray, The Epistle to the Ro­mans, Vol. 2, page 109).

“The way to determine our spiri­tual gifts is not to ask, ‘What is my “thing” spiritually, my spiritual specialty, that sets me apart from other believers and gives me a distinguishing niche in the church?’….The question to ask is, ‘What in the situation in which God has place me are the particular op­portunities I see for serving oth­er believers in word and deed (cf. I Peter 4:10f.)?’ ‘What are the specific needs confronting me that need to be ministered to?’ Posing and effectively re­sponding to this question will go a long way not only toward discovering but also actually using our spiritual gifts.” (Richard B. Gaffin, Perspec­tives on Pentecost, p. 53).