The world asks a lot of questions and claims to have a lot of answers. Just listen to all the talking heads on TV, radio, internet, podcasts, YouTube, etc. It is an unending flow. But very few of them indeed ask the four most important questions of all. Yet these four questions apply to every single person born into the world and have everlasting consequences. Until we answer them nothing else really matters. You can only get the answers to these questions from God's Word and especially Paul's epistles, and specifically Romans and Ephesians.
QUESTION #1: How Can I (A Sinner!) Have a Right Standing Before The Infinitely Holy God (Be Justified) (Rom. 1-4)?
Job asked this question thousands of years ago, but it wasn't answered fully or manifested in all its glory until God revealed it to and through the Apostle Paul in Romans 1-4. Job recognized the problem: How can we, as members of a fallen, sinful humanity in Adam, born into the world as ungodly sinners on enemy status before God, stuck in the quicksand of sin and death and powerless to do anything about it; how can we be declared right by a holy God? Everyone knows that the worst thing a person can do when they are caught in quicksand is to do anything at all! Any and every effort at escape just results in their being dragged in and under the surface faster and deeper. On their own it is utterly hopeless.
And that is the problem with man-made religious and man-centered theological systems. They tell those who are stuck in the quicksand of sin and death to do something! Fix yourself up, put forth all effort, clean yourself up, and then God will save you. They tell us to do their religious rites and rituals, follow their theological rules and regulations, and then God will make use of us. But if “doing something” is the wrong advice for someone caught in literal quicksand, it is even worse advice for someone caught in the quicksand of sin and death. It doesn't help resolve the person's hopeless predicament; it just makes it worse!
God, however, answers in Rom. 5:6-10: There we learn that God doesn't save us after we have fixed and cleaned ourselves up! He saves us while we were not just weak, but ungodly. And not just weak and ungodly, but weak and ungodly sinners. And not just weak, ungodly sinners but weak ungodly enemies on enemy status before Him! No, the only answer for someone trapped in the quicksand of sin and death is to stay as still as possible and appreciate the hopelessness of their condition. They need to set aside all reliance on their own work and effort so that they can rely solely on the work and effort of Someone else, Someone who is not caught in the quicksand. Someone on solid ground, who could throw a rope over their shoulders and powerfully drag them out, transferring them from Satan's quicksand realm of sin and death and into God's glorious realm of righteousness and eternal life. And that is exactly what God did! He sent the Someone else, His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, to go down to the quicksand of fallen sinful humanity to pull them out through His Own Work, effort and performance on the Cross. There, He set us free from sin and death and reconciled us to Himself. Our part is just to rely on Christ and His Work, receiving it as a gracious free gift of righteousness and eternal life by faith.
QUESTION #2: Today, What Does God Do With Those He Has Justified (Rom. 5-8)?
One of Satan's most clever and effective deceptions is convincing most of historic Christianity, even most of believing Christianity, that when God saves people today, He places them into the Nation of Israel. Now, it is self-evident to any and all that when they got saved, they were most certainly NOT placed into the Nation of Israel, a nation in the Middle East, some 6,000 plus miles and a half world away. In order to persist in this vain human imagination, Satan did what he always does. He used and still uses man-made religious and man-centered theological systems to generate “good” words and “fair” speeches to deceive the hearts of the simple ... which is contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned (from the Apostle Paul--Rom. 16:17-18; 2 Cor. 11:13-15). They come up with false teachings like this that sound good but are, in fact, dead wrong. They turn everything upside down by explaining: Oh, it's not literal Israel in the Middle East, God's all done with that Nation of Israel. It's a replaced Israel, a spiritual Israel, the new Israel and true Israel. Did you just hear the hearts of the simple crashing? What nonsense.
God, however, answers this question in Rom. 5-8: When sinners are saved today in the Dispensation of Grace, God does NOT sanctify them by placing them into the Nation of Israel in any real or imagined form or shape. Rather, He places them into Christ, making them members of a new group of redeemed humanity under the headship of Christ called the Body of Christ (Rom. 5:12-6:6; Rom 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:12-27).
QUESTION #3: Why Did God Create A New Group Of Redeemed Humanity, The Body of Christ (Rom. 9-11)?
Paul answers this question in Rom. 9-11. God needed a new group of redeemed humanity because He began a new, previously unrevealed program, called His Mystery Program that He had kept secret since the world began (Rom. 16:25). When the Nation of Israel continued to rebel against God and reject Christ in unbelief, she stumbled and fell, and God cast her away (temporarily), thereby putting His Prophetic Program with her on hold. While this Prophetic Program was diminishing, He simultaneously began another program that He revealed and made known through the distinct apostleship of Paul, called His Mystery Program with the Body of Christ.
QUESTION #4: Why Did God Need A New Program (Eph. 1-3)?
And that generates our 4th most important question of all: Ok, Paul. When I got saved by faith, God placed me into a newly created group of redeemed humanity called the Body of Christ, which is participating in His newly revealed Mystery Program. But why did God need a new Program? This question is not answered explicitly in Romans. But it is in Ephesians. Ephesians explains that God created His Mystery Program for the Body of Christ to accomplish a new Purpose that He had never revealed before. While He had revealed in the Old Testament that He would re-establish His Glory on Earth through a redeemed humanity called the Nation of Israel, what He had never revealed before was that HE IS ALSO GOING TO RE-ESTABLISH HIS GLORY IN THE HEAVENLIES! NOT WITH THE ANGELS BUT WITH THE REDEEMED HUMANITY CALLED THE BODY OF CHRIST!
These are the most important questions of all. If you haven't answered these yet, stop everything and do it now. In comparison, nothing else is as important; nothing else really matters. (#1) If you're an unbeliever, believe in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved you so much that He died for you while you were yet an ungodly sinner on enemy status before Him (Rom. 5:6-10). (#2) Once saved, appreciate that when God saved you He placed you into the Body of Christ, (#3) making you a participant in His Mystery Program (#4) for the re-establishment of His Glory in the Heavenlies. God revealed all of this to and through the distinct apostleship of Paul. And now, armed with this divine perspective and walking in accord with the Spirit, we can confidently go out and answer all the lesser questions in life!