Romans 4: 1-25
What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh, has found?
Paul is still addressing the Jewish believers in Rome, the physical descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.
If Abraham could work his way into justification, then it would only apply to his life here on Earth, as getting along with other people, not with God, who is also in charge of the after-life, forever.
For what does the Scripture say?
Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15: 6).
So Abraham's faith, in believing God, even before he saw anything that was promised, was why God put righteousness on his side of the ledger.
Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.
Anyone who tries to work his way into righteousness will not end up with any credit to his account, but rather debt, for when he couldn't do everything perfectly all the time.
But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness,
But the person who gives up trying to work for salvation, and just trusts God, believing that Jesus paid his debt on the Cross for him: God will put Jesus's suffering and death in payment for the debt, and Christ's righteousness onto his side of the ledger, balancing the books for each of us.
just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account (Psalm 32: 1-2).
God is just and fair, and His justice needs to balance the books. All of our sins put that debt in our ledgers, that takes death to pay of to balance. That's why they needed to bring the animal to die in their place on the altar, according to the Law in Leviticus 1. They let the bull or lamb die for them, and its blood was splattered on the sides of the altar to cover their sins, and they could then be forgiven. Their faith in God's faithfulness to His promise is what saved them, not just going through the motions of the sacrifice.
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say,
Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness (Genesis 15: 6).
How then was it credited? While he was circumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised;
The Law of sacrifice was not given until Moses, but the idea of an animal death in the place of the person for sin was given to Adam and Eve, as an animal had to die for each of them to cover their nakedness because of sin, and they taught this lesson to their children, Cain and Abel.
So people even in that early day of Man knew about the penalty for sin. And faith in what God said has always been the standard for salvation, even before it was standardized in Law. So Abraham's faith in what God promised was credited as righteousness on Abraham's ledger even before he was circumcised, two chapters later.
and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised,
And, two chapters later, Abraham was given the ritual of circumcision to be a sign in his flesh of the agreement he made with God to believe everything He said.
so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them,
and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.
Paul is saying here that, whether someone is circumcised or not, it's his faith that determines his righteousness. So just because someone happens to have been circumcised as a baby, it doesn't matter if he doesn't decide to believe God.
For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the World was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith.
When God told Abraham that he would have a multitude of Nations as descendants, and that kings would come from him, and that the land of Canaan would be given to them, is when God also told him to be circumcised, as the sign that he believed these promises from God. This is why it is called the Promised Land. God said He'd give it to Abraham's descendants through his son Isaac, and also his grandson Jacob.
Before Moses was born, to receive the Law.
For if those who are of the Law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified;
So if just following the letter of the Law and getting circumcised is enough, then we wouldn't even need to believe God at all.
for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation.
When we have written rules to follow, and we don't, then we break that rule. But if there's no written rule, then there's no violation of a rule, but we still know the difference between right and wrong, and we are aware that going the wrong way leads to disaster.
For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham,
So if trying to follow a set of rules is fatal, then those who have tried to follow them, as well as those who didn't have the rules at all, are all saved the same way, through the gracious gift from God of His righteousness on our ledger, so we all can be saved through our faith in believing Him.
who is the father of us all,
(as it is written,
A father of many nations have I made you (Genesis 17: 4-5))
So Abraham has become the father of everyone everywhere from every branch of humanity in every place in the World who decide to believe God.
in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.
In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken,
So shall your descendants be (Genesis 17: 4).
This was when he was a really old man and Sarah had always been barren and wasn't even having cycles any more, and God told him he would have a son, named Isaac.
Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb;
yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
Abraham thought about his own aged condition, and Sarah's barren condition, realizing that there was absolutely no hope at all of any life coming from either of them by now; but decided to trust God anyway, believing that He could bring life from what was dead.
and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.
So because he believed God, he went ahead and did what was needed to conceive a baby in Sarah's womb. Remember, Sarah had laughed when she thought about Abraham being able to "perform" again (Genesis 18: 12).
Abraham's faith was active, in following through doing what he believed God was able to do in him and Sarah. I find this really amazing! He trusted God, not having seen anything yet!
Therefore
it was also credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15: 6).
Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,
but for our sake also,
God wanted Abraham and Sarah to be blessed in their faith, but He also had the story written down, so that we also, living so much later in time, could know and also be strengthened in our faith in trusting God to do what He said He would do for us, too.
to whom it will be credited,
We are in Abraham's future.
as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
Because God brought Isaac out of the deadness of Abraham's and Sarah's bodies, we can now believe that He also raised Jesus our Lord from having died and been buried for three days. We are still believing what God is saying.
He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
Jesus was given over to a criminal's execution death, because that is how God's wrath fell upon the sinfulness and sins of each of us, Him in our place; and God raised Him from that death with a new, Resurrection Life, to show us that He accepted His payment of our debt in full, justifying us, and will also raise us up with a Resurrection body like His, either from our death or being changed at His coming.
O my Father, Your Plan is so perfect! You have done and are doing and will do everything so perfect! Because You are perfect! And You are also making us perfect!
O Father, please help us to see ourselves and one another with Your eyes, to look past all of our faults and failures and sins, past the wounds and hurts, past all the stuff that irritates; past everything that isn't perfect.
So that we can accept one another as You have accepted us, cleansing us and saving us from the power of sin over us, and redeeming us out of the slave-market of sin, into Your glorious household as Your own sons and daughters!
You have made us into Your kings and queens to help you govern all Your future creation, all the continually increasing Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, because we believe You, we put our faith into what You have said, and we live our lives according to the Truth You have taught us.
O my Abba Daddy, my Father God, please fill Your house with Your uncountable family! Send us out, Father, into all Your fields, that every living person will be able to hear with understanding how much You love them, and have already met all their needs with Your unlimited, gracious, generous provisions! Let every human being know to accept Your bountiful gifts, or reject You.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue of every created being everywhere will confess and proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Romans 3: 21-31
But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
God's righteousness does not depend on any Law, the Law and the Prophets are witnesses of God's righteousness.
even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all
God does not exclude anyone of the human race; Jesus is our Christ for all people everywhere who would believe.
and upon all who believe; for there is no distinction;
And it falls on everyone who puts their faith in Jesus as their personal Sacrifice, no matter who they are, or where they're from, or who their parents and grandparents were, all have the same opportunity.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Every single person has failed to some degree to be perfect. Everybody admits that they aren't perfect, so they are admitting that they've missed the mark. The word "sin" is an archery term that means, "to miss the mark, the bull's eye." So all have fallen short of God's perfection. There is no difference, we all deserve death, we're all the criminals who deserve execution. It doesn't matter if our "arrow" hit just barelyoutside the center, or if it missed the whole target all together, we are all guilty, and need forgiveness and Redemption.
being justified as a gift by His grace through the Redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
We can't earn this Redemption, it's only received as a gift from God, in realizing that Jesus took our place in death, paying our debt, out of the goodness of His heart.
whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His Blood through faith.
God the Father had His Son to be sacrificed publicly, in full view of the crowds, letting His own Blood splatter the sides of His altar, the Cross, as our personal Sacrifice. That's why God saves us one-by-one, individually.
This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed;
This was a public demonstration of God's righteousness in punishing sin. All the sacrifices before this could not take away the debt, but only pay the interest on the principle, which still remained until Jesus' Blood paid it off.
So God passed over all those previous sins, letting them be covered by the animal blood of the sacrifices under the Law, and forgave the people. But they still went to the same Sheol where everyone went when they died.
Until Jesus fulfilled those sacrifices, as the Lamb of God.
for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time,
God always does everything at the right time.
so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
God's justice demanded His wrath be poured out on sin, and when Jesus "became sin" He took upon Himself our own human, sin-nature, and endured the wrath of God for each one of us, in our place. This shows us how sinful sin really is.
Now that Jesus has paid our debt, God can now justify us as His gift, forgiving us and cleansing us so pristine it's like we'd never sinned, and then to live inside each of us in the Person of His Holy Spirit.
Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith.
So can anyone say they deserve or have earned Redemption by anything they have done? No. We only can have this as a gift from God, by believing that He has done this for us. Faith is trusting. And we put our faith, our trust in God to be True.
For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.
So we can only be justified from our sins by faith, not by anything we can do to follow a rule.
Or is God the God of the Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is One.
God gave the Law to the Jews, but He made all the human race to be His children, not just one group. So He saves Jews (the circumcised) by their faith in the God who gave the Law, and He saves the rest of Mankind (the uncircumcised) through faith in God the Creator; but He is still only one and the same God over all.
Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.
Our faith in the God who created all things and gave His Law to teach us who He is, is one God over all. And to know Him and to learn His ways, establishes that His Law is a good rule to live by, as that's how He planned for us to live here.
So the Law God has placed in our hearts now, the principles of loving God and loving one another, don't go against the written Law He gave Moses. It covers it all, and goes beyond.
O my Father, You are God, our strong and wise and clever Creator who has planned out everything You would do before you did any of it, like my son did since he was a tiny tot. You have made us in Your image, and even in our sinful state, we display some of Your characteristics.
Father, You made us because You Love us. And You gave us a choice, because You want us to want to love You back as Your children. And those of us who do, You have given us the gift of faith to believe You. And You have given us the gift of Your Holy Spirit, to live inside us, in our spirits, to birth us into Your family, Father, to live with You where You are.
Help us, Father, to see one another the way You see us, to love one another the way You have Loved us, and to serve You by serving our fellow man.
And send out Your workers into Your fields, Father, the fallow fields to receive Your seed of the Gospel, and the fields white to harvest, to reap Your crops into Your barn. That every lost sheep would be found, and every wayward lamb would be untangled from the briars, and all would be brought into Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God our Father forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
Romans 3: 9-20
What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;
as it is written,
There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God;
All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one (Psalm 14:1).
Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving (Psalm 5:9).
The poison of asps is under their lips (Psalm 140:3).
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness (Psalm 10:7);
Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known (Proverbs 1:16).
There is no fear of God before their eyes (Psalm 36:1).
Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the World may become accountable to God;
because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
All this is saying that just because the Jews were privileged to receive God's Law, so that they would be shown how to live their lives pleasing to God so he could bless them, it doesn't mean that they're any better than anyone else from any other part of the World.
It meant that He wanted to use them as His example of how good He is to those who followed His ways, as He blessed them with the abundance of this Earth, which was the consequence of their following the way He designed the World to work.
So that others in other Nations could also come to Israel and become a proselyte, following God's ways and also being blessed.
Today there is no difference between a Jew or a Greek or a Barbarian in God's eyes, because He made the whole Human race to be His children, so everyone has an equal chance to turn to Him, repent, and be saved from sin.
And anyway, following rules and precepts and commandments never saved anyone, anyway, even the Jews the Law was given to. It's always been a matter of the heart, which gets its direction on how to feel about things from the mind, how we think.
And it's always been impossible to actually follow every detail of every Law all the time, because our own human nature draws us away from doing what is right when it's easier not to. And it's almost always easier not to.
That's why people can be so mean to one another, how we can talk trash and do awful stuff, even to extremes, like mass murderers and such.
And even when we do good, even all of our most righteous deeds are no better than filthy, uncleanable menstrual rags in God's sight, because they are polluted by our sinful human flesh (Isaiah 64:6).
So the Law shows us our need for forgiveness, which only comes through the blood of sacrifice. (Numbers 35:33 says that the Land cannot be cleansed, expiated, from innocent blood shed on it, "but by the blood of him that shed it." And Hebrews 9:22-23 says that, "without shedding of blood there is no remission" of sin, or any cleansing of anything, including the duplicates of the things in Heaven that Moses built, the whole Tabernacle.)
So God gave the Law to show us how to cooperate with how He designed this Earth, so that by obeying Him, He could bless all those who believed He wants the best for us all. Then we will follow His ways of loving Him by worshiping only Him, and loving one another by thinking the best of one another and wanting the best for each other regardless of the cost to ourselves.
That's what Jesus meant when He said that "On these two commandments [loving God and loving one another] hang all the Law and the prophets" (Matthew 22:40).
But we still aren't able to actually live our lives this way without Jesus' Blood shed for each of us to cleanse us, and God's Holy Spirit living in us to make our spirits alive to communicate with God and understand His Word, and to give us the power, the ability to live a Christian life according the Law He has now placed into our own hearts and minds.
O my Father, Your Plan is so perfect! You have thought of every detail of every situation that could happen to everyone everywhere. You see all the smallest parts as well as the Big Picture, and You have determined how every part makes up the whole.
Father, that helps me to realize that all the little things in my every day are all important, because all these little things build into the big things in my life.
Thank You so much for calling me to faith, for showing me that Jesus took my place on the Cross, and for taking control of my life that day so long ago. And You have never left me. Through all the decades, through all the marriage and the kids and widowhood and now grandkids, and You are still with me.
Help me, Father. I still need You every day. It seems like I still need You more each day, Father. You are still so good to me, and I am still in this weak, frail flesh that can do nothing. All I can do is through Your strength, Father.
Please put Your blessing on my endeavors, so that I can give You the credit and glory for all You do for me, and for others through me. You know my heart's desire, Father.
Send me, send all Your children out into Your fields, fallow for Your seed, and ripe and ready for harvest. Father, let every living person hear and understand that You Love them so much that You have already met all their needs, and all those who want You will turn to You, and Your house will be full.
Every place at Your great Banquet Table will be filled,
and every creature which is in Heaven, and on the Earth, and under the Earth, and such as are in the Sea, and all that are in them, saying "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits on the Throne, unto the Lamb for ever and ever" (Revelation 5:13).
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue in every language will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord God Almighty, King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Romans 3: 1-8
Then what advantage has the Jew?
Then what is the advantage of being born through the line of Abraham?
Or what is the benefit of circumcision?
Or what good does it do to obey all the Laws?
Great in every respect.
There is great advantage no matter how you look at it.
First of all, they they were entrusted with the oracles of God.
God chose this particular People group to give His Law to, so they could know how to obey God and please Him, and get His blessings, before anyone else.
What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it?
So if God chose this whole group of people, what if some of them didn't put their faith and allegiance in the Lord God? Does this remove the power and authority of the Law? Of course not.
May it never be! Rather let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written,
That You may be justified in Your words, and prevail when You are judged (Psalm 51: 4).
Even though every person may be mistaken or deceived, God is Truth, and everything He says and does is True and can be trusted and relied on. And when God calls us on our disobedience, He is always just and fair.
But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.)
If when we go against what God says, and we suffer the consequences of our errors, we prove that what He directed is right; and then God judges us for our disobedience, letting us receive the wrath we all deserve, if He hasn't already poured it out on Jesus on the Cross.
May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the World?
When we disobey and suffer the consequences, it shows that if we'd done it righteously in the first place, instead of sinning, it would have turned out better. This shows that His ways are right, they work, because that's how He designed this Earth to operate.
But when Mankind rebels against God and His ways, then we experience all the problems and troubles and sorrows of the World, because we're not following the Manufacturer's Instructions. So it's all our own fault.
And when we decide to make our own decisions, then we're considering ourselves to be our own god, and this usurps the authority God has over us. That's why we deserve His wrath. And that's why Jesus died as the Lamb of God on His altar the Cross for each of us, so we wouldn't have to die, and can live with Him forever.
But if through my lie the Truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner?
When we are deceived into repeating lies and things go wrong, it shows that God is right, and He gets the credit for being right, because if we followed His course we wouldn't have had the troubles and problems we are dealing with. So my disobedience shows how God is holy.
And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), "Let us do evil that good may come"? Their condemnation is just.
Just because God gets the glory when we disobey, it doesn't mean we should disobey! God also gets the glory when we do right. He always gets the glory, because He designed it all. God wants us to follow His ways, so we won't have to get so tangled up in the briars and thorns of the World.
And people who slander Christians, saying that we think we can do anything we want because God will always forgive us, show that they don't understand God's grace or His Spirit in us. As rebels against God they will be judged righteously for their errors.
God's Word is His Book of directions on how to relate to Him and to one another, how we are to use this World for our common benefit, and how to make it right when we've messed up. He's given us every advantage so that we can enjoy all the benefits He put here for us.
God's Word gives us our whole history from before Mankind was, all the way through to after our Era of Mankind is over, with even a glimpse of the next World. And the Star of the story is Christ Jesus, our Lord God Almighty.
He told the Bible writers what to write, letting them put their own personalities into the writings. And He wrote the Ten Commandments with His finger on the tables of stone for Moses, and gave Moses all the Laws, and all the information to put into the first five Books.
He knew what He would need to do to be our Savior, so He told the people how to perform all the sacrifices, so we would recognize Him when He fulfilled them all.
God wants us to know Him, so He has revealed Himself to us, because He Loves us so much. And He wants the very best for us, to be His own children to help Him run His family business, the Kingdom. But He wants us to want to know and love Him back, so He gave us our "free" will to choose.
Knowing that we will sometimes not choose Him, but rebel instead, He made provision to redeem us, so at least some of us would be His sons and daughters. Some being a number that is uncountable! (Revelation 7: 9-10.)
O my Father, You are so good, so great, so gracious, so wise, so generous with us all! You are Almighty God the Father, who has designed and made everything that exists. And Your Son, our Lord God Almighty, and Your Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Almighty God, all as one God together created and made all the Universe and the Earth for an environment where we could live.
Then You gave us your instructions. You told Adam not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge, because if he disobeyed You he would have to be able to die, for a Savior to die in his place. But You also put the Tree of Life there for him, and if he'd eaten of that Tree, we all would live forever. So he really did have a free choice.
Now our choice is not as free as his was, because we inherited his sin-nature, which draws us away from Your good ways, into our own, flawed ones.
So You made sure we could know Your ways, in giving us all the Law, the rules and precepts and commandments and regulations, so we could order our lives in order, and not have to suffer through all the tangles we end up in when we disobey and rebel.
O Father, please prepare Your children for what You have told us is going to happen before Your Son returns. Keep us faithful through everything that will work against us, and let every weapon forged against us to fail, and be against the forger; let the one who digs the hole fall into it himself.
And when we see the thousands falling beside us, the ten thousand at our right hand, and it doesn't touch us at all (Psalm 91:7), then we will give You all the credit, the glory for all You have done!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will proclaim that Jesus Christ is our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Romans 2: 25-29
For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law;
Paul is talking to the Jewish believers in Rome. But the principle he is teaching us all here is applicable to all of us.
Today we circumcise our sons as a simple health measure. But the Jews circumcised their sons to obey the rule God gave them, to be different from the rest of the Nations around them. It was an act of obedience.
So if we consider ourselves to be Christians, then we need to be very careful to actually think like Jesus thinks, and have His attitudes as our own. Practice the Law that is written on our hearts.
but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.
But if we're harboring worldly attitudes, thinking like our society around us thinks, then our Christianity is being nullified.
So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision?
This is a new concept. Those from other Nations who came to Israel as proselytes and became Jews did so by obeying the Law and becoming circumcised. Now Paul is saying that one who is not circumcised can be regarded as if he were. Let's see what he means by this.
And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law?
Paul elevates this uncircumcised person, a Gentile, to have authority over the Jew, who is circumcised.
For he is not a [true] Jew who is one outwardly, nor is [true] circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.
But he is a [true] Jew who is one inwardly; and [true] circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter (Jeremiah 4 :4);
So Paul is saying that to be a true follower of God, which used to be following the Mosaic Law; is now following the Law that is written in our hearts, regardless of what our physical condition is.
And this is what God intended all along. All the outward, physical signs and actions are supposed to show what has already been experienced inwardly, in our souls; our hearts and minds; and in our spirits, having been made alive by God's Spirit in us, spiritually "cutting away" the attitudes and ideas that disobey His Law.
and his praise is not from men, but from God.
God is Spirit, and those who are His have received His Spirit into their spirits. This happens when a person admits that they are the criminal who deserves death, repent, and turn around from the life they used to live. And, in times past, would bring their personal animal to the priest to sacrifice, dying in their place (Leviticus 1).
Now Jesus has come as our Lamb of God, and has sacrificed Himself on the altar of His Cross, fulfilling that personal sacrifice; so we don't offer animals on an altar any more.
Now, Jesus has rendered the Old Covenant of Law to be obsolete, having ushered in the New Covenant that was promised in Jeremiah 31: 32-33, written on our hearts, not carved in stone.
So we are not bound to the letter of the Law any more, but actually are moved to go way beyond the letter. We not only don't commit adultery, but we don't even allow our thoughts to entertain an unclean idea about another. We not only not murder a person, but we don't even let our attitude toward that person to be uncharitable.
This is an impossibly high standard, that we are woefully unable to live up to on our own. That's why God gives us His Spirit. The Spirit gives us the power and ability to do what He commands, to actually love one another the way He has Loved us.
O my Father, You always did Love all people, and give all people a chance to come to You in every time and place in the World.
Today, You have pulled out all the stops, and You want every person alive to hear Your Good News, so that they can be rescued from their sins and tangled lives, and know Your peace and Love. Through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And the voice of Your message has gone out over all the World. O Father, please send us all out to cover the Earth with the Knowledge of the Lord! Let every person hear and understand how much You Love them, and what You have already accomplished and finished to draw them out of the miry clay to place their feet on the Solid Rock!
Let every person alive hear and understand well enough to make an informed decision to either accept Your gracious gift, or to reject You.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language that Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Romans 2: 17-24
But if you bear the name "Jew" and rely upon the Law and boast in God,
and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law,
Now if you call yourself a Christian, and you go to church, and you agree with everything your pastor preaches;
and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those in darkness,
a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the Truth,
If you've been given every advantage, and you know the Bible so well that you even counsel others who have problems and teach a Sunday School class, and you do good deeds like help with the kids or in the nursery, or help distribute the donated groceries to the poor families, or even knock on doors handing out tracts;
you, therefore, who teach another do you not teach yourself?
Are you just going through the motions, do you not really take to heart how much God Loves you and has done so much for you?
You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal?
You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?
If you're teaching honesty, do you cheat on your taxes? If you're telling your companions how wrong it is to be unfaithful, are your own eyes wandering? If you're inviting people to your church, are you putting down other denominations that have different practices than yours?
You who boast in the Law, through breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?
If you think you're doing so well following all the details of the rules, but you allow your thinking to dwell on something uncharitable about someone else;
The Law is like a chain, if you break one little link, then the chain is broken. And it's noticed.
For "the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written (II Samuel 12: 14).
King David had "a heart after God," but when he slipped and tried to cover it up, this gave occasion to the Nations around them to say that Israel's God was no different from their idols.
Does our life look any different from our neighbors? Are our attitudes any more positive than the negativity around us? Are we demonstrating how our God is Light and Love and generous?
Can others point to our lives and say that we are just the same as they are, there's no difference between our God and their religion? This insults God.
We as Christians live in glass houses. Everything we do is apparent to our neighbors. We are on the spot, high on a pedestal, in full view of all the others who are wanting to justify themselves by pulling us down.
O my Father, please help us who do study Your Word, to be extra careful, to really take to heart what we're learning. We who have been given much, much is required of us. Strengthen us to remain pure and faithful to Your ideal, and forgive us when we mess up. May we unconsciously display Your character, Father, the traits of our Lord Jesus, to other people we encounter daily.
Teach us how to love You back, Father, and to love others as You have Loved us, to show them how much You Love them, too. To love them into Your Kingdom.
And send us out, Father, into Your fields white to harvest. Send out all Your workers, to plant and sow, and to reap and harvest, until every person alive has heard and understands enough to make an informed decision to either accept Your great gift, or to reject You.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Lord God Almighty, King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come soon, Lord Jesus!
Romans 2: 11-16
For there is no partiality with God.
The ground is level at the foot of the Cross, we are all sinners, born with the damaged DNA we inherited from Adam. That's why we all make the wrong choices, and commit sins.
That's why Jesus is our Lamb of God, to take upon Himself the wrath of God that each of us has earned, in our place individually. No matter who we are.
For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the law;
This is fair. Those without the Law will be judged on the Moral law, rather than the Mosaic Law. But those who have the Mosaic Law will be judged according to all the stipulations of that Law.
for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.
How we live our lives is what will count, not just what we know.
For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law unto themselves,
in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness
The human race all know the difference between good and evil generally, the Moral Law has been written in our hearts, giving us a conscience.
and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,
People all live by their own standards, and when they know they've done what they consider is wrong, then they have a guilty conscience, or if they try to do right, they become defensive.
on the day when, according to my Gospel, God will judge the secrets of Men through Christ Jesus.
When Jesus returns to this Earth, through the whole process of the Day of the Lord, everyone will be required to give account, and no one will have any excuse for anything they knew was wrong, whether they're going by the Moral Law or the Mosaic Law.
Dante's "Inferno" is not Scripture, but he did have the right idea about varying levels of suffering, however that suffering will pan out.
And we know that the Lord will award varying rewards to those who are His family. So whether we're Christians or not, how we live our lives will have a bearing on the degree of reward or suffering in the next realm.
O my Father, You are so wise, so clever and so smart about everything, so much more that my puny intelligence can understand or express. Any words I can use, no matter how extreme and superlative, they all just fall so far short of the reality of who You are!
You are totally fair and just, You have made everything that exists to all work together. Everything is connected to everything else, and has consequences. Father, it's like "there's a string running through it all," as my late husband used to say, when he couldn't do this until he'd done that, but he couldn't do that until something else was done first. You work everything together, weaving Your magnificent Grand Tapestry of Time, each one of us another colorful tiny thread, woven in with all the other threads.
And how we live our lives matters. It matters to You, Father, so it matters for us, too. While we live here, in this World on this Earth, we are building our eternal futures, so everything we do here will either add to or subtract from what we will enjoy forever with You, or suffer away from You.
Father, I pray for all Your children. Comfort those who are being persecuted; prepare those who are not yet persecuted for what is coming, and encourage those who have fallen into some kind of discouragement.
And find all those who are still lost and floundering, seeking You, whether they know it's You they're seeking or not. Send out Your workers, Father, to find them all, and draw them, or carry them, or drag them kicking and screaming into the safety and fellowship of Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ Messiah, our Lord God Almighty, sovereign King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
