Romans 7: 14-25
For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.
Here we have an apparent conflict, between flesh and spirit.
For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do but I am doing the very thing I hate.
This is what happens every time we slide naturally into temptation; we tend to sabotage ourselves.
But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.
We admit that to do exactly what we're supposed to be doing would turn out to be much better than the laziness we end up giving in to.
So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
We really want to do right, and not slough off our responsibilities, so it must not be us doing it, it must just be that old pesky sinful flesh we live in!
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
Paul admits that his flesh is sinful, and everything he does in the flesh is polluted by that sin. Even when he wants to do well, he sometimes still falls back into old attitudes anyway.
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.
But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
This happens to me. I intend to do so responsibly and take care of all the business I've planned to do, then the day just gets away from me with all the distractions. So other stuff ends up running my day, not me. That sin in me catches me up and steals my time.
I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.
Yes, I also find that principle of evil that lives in my flesh, in that damaged DNA I inherited from my father, that keeps me from doing all the good I want to do.
For I joyfully concur with the Law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
God's Spirit in my spirit shows me how to rejoice in how His Law is so orderly and keeps things running smoothly. But I still live in my flesh body, that still wants to draw me away of the good that God wants for me. It's like a heavy anchor pulling me down.
Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?
Paul feels the same way. His flesh body pulls him down, too. Who sets us free?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Yes! Give thanks to God who sent His Son to wash us clean in His precious Blood, and strengthens us in gaining the victory over the flesh.
So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the Law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
So when we live in the flesh, we are following the law of the sinfulness of the flesh; but when we yield to God through Jesus Christ as our Lord, our Boss, then He fights our battles for us, and gains for us the victory over sin in our lives.
O my Father, You are so good, and great, and wonderful! Your order that You placed in this Universe and our Earth shows Your Love for Your creation. And Your Law that You gave to Moses, as well as all the "laws of nature" show Your Love for us all, in teaching us how to love You back, and how to love one another.
Father, You know that we are just dust, damaged goods, wretched sinners, criminal rebels who deserve death. So You sent Your own Son so that we could be redeemed; rescued from all the snares of sin that tries constantly to entangle our feet. You release us from that bondage so that we can run with You!
O Father, continue to strengthen us, prepare Your church to face what You have told us is coming, and use us to find all Your lost sheep, to draw them into the safety and compassion of home in Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Why Good Law If It Brings Death?
Romans 7: 1-13
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the Law),
Paul is clarifying here that he's addressing primarily Jewish believers.
that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
Only a living person can obey a law, when he dies he can't do anything.
For the married woman is bound by Law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning the husband.
Marriage is a contract that the two people agree to, until death. So if her husband dies, she's no longer married to him, the marriage contract has been nullified by his death.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress;
Sleeping with another man while still married to her husband is going against the contract she agreed to follow.
but if her husband dies, she is free from the Law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
But if the contract has been nullified by the death of the husband, it's not in effect any more, so she is free to agree to another contract in marriage to someone else.
(Paul is not giving marital advice here, he's using the marriage agreement as an example of how God's Covenants operate.)
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead,
The same way, the Law is a contract we made with the Lord God, and we are bound to it "until death." So by the Lord's death, and our dying with Him, the contract was nullified in its authority over us, and we are free to "marry" another, the same Lord with a new Life, under another contract.
in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Physical marriage produces children, which are the fruit of a marriage. Our spiritual marriage to our Lord Jesus is to produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23), which also produces spiritual children, in this spiritual marriage.
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
While we live in the flesh, we are bound to the contract of the Law which binds us to having to obey every letter. But when we can't do it all perfectly, we're going against the contract. That's why God calls idolatry spiritual adultery.
So, because we all have failed to obey perfectly, we've all sinned, and deserve to die.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
When Jesus becomes our Savior, we die with Him on the Cross, and He causes us to become alive spiritually by putting His Holy Spirit inside us, making our dead human spirits alive. So the old contract has been rendered null and void to us, and we're under a New Covenant now.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said,
When my kids were teens, they told me that all the "just say no" commercials only reminded them of the drugs and cigarettes, and made them want to do drugs and cigarettes.
Just the mention of them raised a desire for them, even when showing all the detrimental results of imbibing in them. That's our sin-nature working.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
for sin taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Just as the commercials' intent was to protect the kids from drugs and cigarettes, the effect was that sin lied to them, and caused them to want to do them. If they had succumbed to that deceit, then they would have damaged their own health, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and their relationships in their family. What was intended for good resulted in death.
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
It's good to know how to do good, and God's commandments reveal how holy and righteous He is, and how He wants us to be holy and righteous, too.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
One reason why God gave the Ten Commandments, and all the sacrificial laws, and all the other rules and precepts and ordinances, was to show how perfect God is, and how evil and harmful it is to go against the order and symmetry God put into our World so that everything would go well for us.
And when we go against what He showed us, it shows that we don't trust Him to know what is best, that we think we know better. As though we're smarter than He is!
But that lie is what draws us astray, and brings decay and depredation and death to our lives. And shows how horrible it is to sin against God.
The perfect Law shows how utterly sinful every sin is, even the little, tiny ones. Because we're putting something else before God in importance in our lives.
O my Father, please help us to see how evil sin is, how much it hurts us, and breaks Your heart. You Love us so much, and it pains you to see how we are doing so much to disrespect You and what You have made, even knowing how perfect and just You are.
It breaks Your heart so much that You have done everything possible and impossible to draw us to Yourself, to take care of our unpayable debt that would take us forever to pay, and never be done.
You sent Your own Son, our Lord God Himself, to take that eternal debt upon Himself for each of us, so that His precious Blood could wash us completely clean, to be fit for You to live in each of us by Your Holy Spirit.
And that's how You planned for us to be able to live with You where You are, without being destroyed by Your Presence. This is why You created. This is why You made the Universe to place our Earth there, as a perfect paradise for humanity to live. To the end that Mankind would be Your own children, members of Your Divine family, to be Your kings and queens to rule Your extensive Kingdom that will never cease to continue to grow and expand forever.
Father, let Your church know that it is our job to let the rest of the World know who You are. To share with them how much You Love them. Send us out as Your workers, into every fertile field You have prepared, into every field ripe for harvest, to reap all Your crops into Your great barn.
Lead us to find every wandering sheep, every lost lamb caught in a pit or entangled in a thicket, to carry them all, by the hand or even kicking and screaming, into the serenity and peace and joy of Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And Your great House will be filled with all Your uncountable number of children, every place at Your grand Banquet Table will be occupied, to enjoy the feasting and rejoicing forever with our dear Father God.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus Christ is our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the Law),
Paul is clarifying here that he's addressing primarily Jewish believers.
that the Law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives?
Only a living person can obey a law, when he dies he can't do anything.
For the married woman is bound by Law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the Law concerning the husband.
Marriage is a contract that the two people agree to, until death. So if her husband dies, she's no longer married to him, the marriage contract has been nullified by his death.
So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress;
Sleeping with another man while still married to her husband is going against the contract she agreed to follow.
but if her husband dies, she is free from the Law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.
But if the contract has been nullified by the death of the husband, it's not in effect any more, so she is free to agree to another contract in marriage to someone else.
(Paul is not giving marital advice here, he's using the marriage agreement as an example of how God's Covenants operate.)
Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead,
The same way, the Law is a contract we made with the Lord God, and we are bound to it "until death." So by the Lord's death, and our dying with Him, the contract was nullified in its authority over us, and we are free to "marry" another, the same Lord with a new Life, under another contract.
in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Physical marriage produces children, which are the fruit of a marriage. Our spiritual marriage to our Lord Jesus is to produce the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 22-23), which also produces spiritual children, in this spiritual marriage.
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.
While we live in the flesh, we are bound to the contract of the Law which binds us to having to obey every letter. But when we can't do it all perfectly, we're going against the contract. That's why God calls idolatry spiritual adultery.
So, because we all have failed to obey perfectly, we've all sinned, and deserve to die.
But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.
When Jesus becomes our Savior, we die with Him on the Cross, and He causes us to become alive spiritually by putting His Holy Spirit inside us, making our dead human spirits alive. So the old contract has been rendered null and void to us, and we're under a New Covenant now.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said,
You shall not covet (Exodus 20: 17; Deuteronomy 5: 21).But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
When my kids were teens, they told me that all the "just say no" commercials only reminded them of the drugs and cigarettes, and made them want to do drugs and cigarettes.
Just the mention of them raised a desire for them, even when showing all the detrimental results of imbibing in them. That's our sin-nature working.
I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;
for sin taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Just as the commercials' intent was to protect the kids from drugs and cigarettes, the effect was that sin lied to them, and caused them to want to do them. If they had succumbed to that deceit, then they would have damaged their own health, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and their relationships in their family. What was intended for good resulted in death.
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
It's good to know how to do good, and God's commandments reveal how holy and righteous He is, and how He wants us to be holy and righteous, too.
Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather, it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.
One reason why God gave the Ten Commandments, and all the sacrificial laws, and all the other rules and precepts and ordinances, was to show how perfect God is, and how evil and harmful it is to go against the order and symmetry God put into our World so that everything would go well for us.
And when we go against what He showed us, it shows that we don't trust Him to know what is best, that we think we know better. As though we're smarter than He is!
But that lie is what draws us astray, and brings decay and depredation and death to our lives. And shows how horrible it is to sin against God.
The perfect Law shows how utterly sinful every sin is, even the little, tiny ones. Because we're putting something else before God in importance in our lives.
O my Father, please help us to see how evil sin is, how much it hurts us, and breaks Your heart. You Love us so much, and it pains you to see how we are doing so much to disrespect You and what You have made, even knowing how perfect and just You are.
It breaks Your heart so much that You have done everything possible and impossible to draw us to Yourself, to take care of our unpayable debt that would take us forever to pay, and never be done.
You sent Your own Son, our Lord God Himself, to take that eternal debt upon Himself for each of us, so that His precious Blood could wash us completely clean, to be fit for You to live in each of us by Your Holy Spirit.
And that's how You planned for us to be able to live with You where You are, without being destroyed by Your Presence. This is why You created. This is why You made the Universe to place our Earth there, as a perfect paradise for humanity to live. To the end that Mankind would be Your own children, members of Your Divine family, to be Your kings and queens to rule Your extensive Kingdom that will never cease to continue to grow and expand forever.
Father, let Your church know that it is our job to let the rest of the World know who You are. To share with them how much You Love them. Send us out as Your workers, into every fertile field You have prepared, into every field ripe for harvest, to reap all Your crops into Your great barn.
Lead us to find every wandering sheep, every lost lamb caught in a pit or entangled in a thicket, to carry them all, by the hand or even kicking and screaming, into the serenity and peace and joy of Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And Your great House will be filled with all Your uncountable number of children, every place at Your grand Banquet Table will be occupied, to enjoy the feasting and rejoicing forever with our dear Father God.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus Christ is our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
Friday, November 1, 2019
Are You Free Or Enslaved?
Romans 6: 1-23
Paul has just noted that when sin increased, grace also increased.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be!
So should we just multiply sins, so that grace will continue to multiply, too? No, of course not! That's ridiculous! Here's why:
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
If we have died to sin, how can we even consider going back to it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
If Jesus is our Personal Sacrifice, did we not figuratively "place our hand on His head" as the penitent did in presenting his lamb for sacrifice (Leviticus 1), identifying with that death as our own?
Baptizo is from bapto, which is "to cover fully with a fluid." So we use Baptism as an sacrament of the church. Here's why:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
This is the picture we act out, in publicly testifying that this is what happened to us. We died. We were crucified for our transgressions, and we died. Then we were buried, under the water.
And just as Jesus rose victorious from the grave with a new Life, so we also rise up out of the water to live a new life, different from the one we lived before.
This is a very powerful testimony.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
And, since we have died with Him, we shall also be resurrected like Him. We live a new lifestyle now, and we will be resurrected as He was to have that new Life that we haven't experienced yet, but we will.
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
So if we know that we've died with Jesus, then we know that we don't have to do those things we used to do. We're free from those things.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
If we have identified ourselves with Christ, then we know that we are united with Him, and will live with Him forever.
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Jesus died once for all, He is not on the Cross any more, He finished that work, and he was buried and rose in victory over death. Now the Life He lives, that Resurrection Life, is not able to die any more, and will live forever.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So we need to think of ourselves this way, also: just because we're still living here in this World, we should not think like the World, but think higher thoughts, the way God sees us and thinks of us.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;
We should not use our bodies to do things that are unseemly or wrong; those bad habits have been broken, and we don't have to do them any more. All our addictions are broken, we're free from them.
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Come to God in prayer and Bible study, and do the good and pure and right things that He presents to us to do.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace.
We're not tied to those sinful things any more, we're not tangled up in a bunch of written rules and precepts and ceremonies--we're free! Free to do what is right, what is beneficial, what is healing.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? May it never be!
This is an attitude of, "I know it's not right, but God will forgive me!" This is wrong!
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
We are always obeying someone, whether it is God or Satan or our own selves! Our choice is, who do we want to obey?
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.
As Christians, we used to be addicted to all kinds of bad habits, but when we turned to God and He saved us, Jesus bought us out of the slave-market of sin and set us free! Now He is our new Master, our Lord.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.
Paul has to put this in terms that we will understand, to give us the right picture to grasp the importance of what God has done for us in the spiritual realm.
For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Just as before we dabbled in stuff that caught us up into addictions, so now we are to dip our toe and plunge into what is right and pure, that will lead to our being separated from the filth of the World and enjoying all the wonderful, clean, holy things of God.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
He's saying that when we were addicted, we didn't know anything about cleanness, because we were covered in the filth of the World.
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?
So just think, were those addictions good for you? Now you're ashamed of them.
For the outcome of those things is death.
Those things only led to poor health, poor relationships, poor attitudes, poverty in every area, leading to an early death.
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
In contrast, like Black and White, is the difference here: Now that we are freed from slavery to sinful addictions, now we can enjoy all the benefits God put into this Earth, as well as good relationships with our loved ones, and looking forward to living forever with our God who Loves us more than we can imagine!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because trying to follow a complicated system, and failing, results in earning the wrath of God on our sin; but God's gift that He offers everyone freely is to have a wonderful life that lasts forever, in the company of our Maker who wants to live with us, because of what Christ Jesus accomplished for us.
O my Father, You are such a good God! You have made this whole creation just to design our Earth for us to live on. And You planned for us to be Your own family, as Your children. So You had us form families here, which grew into our societies and cultures.
You have given us so many pictures of what You are planning for us spiritually in the future, just as the pictures You gave so that we would be able to recognize the Messiah, our Savior, who fulfilled all those laws and prophesies.
And what You are preparing for us to enjoy is so far beyond what we can even imagine, that You describe it mostly in what will not be there, all the results of sin. Only what is good and positive and beneficial will be there. Wow!
Father, everyone needs to hear! Everyone need to understand how much You love them! Everyone needs to know that they can be free, and go from the dysfunctional, abusive family we are in in this World into the healthy, loving, encouraging family of God!
Father, send out Your workers to tell them! Plant Your seed of the Gospel into every fertile field prepared for it, and reap Your fields that are ripe and ready to harvest, to bring in Your whole crop into Your barns.
Send out Your children to find every wandering sheep, every lost lamb caught in a pit or entangled in brambles, to free them and draw them into the safety and consolation and comfort of Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And fill Your great House, my Father, with all your uncountable number of children, to dine together with You at Your great Banquet Table!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever, Amen!
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Paul has just noted that when sin increased, grace also increased.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
May it never be!
So should we just multiply sins, so that grace will continue to multiply, too? No, of course not! That's ridiculous! Here's why:
How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
If we have died to sin, how can we even consider going back to it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
If Jesus is our Personal Sacrifice, did we not figuratively "place our hand on His head" as the penitent did in presenting his lamb for sacrifice (Leviticus 1), identifying with that death as our own?
Baptizo is from bapto, which is "to cover fully with a fluid." So we use Baptism as an sacrament of the church. Here's why:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
This is the picture we act out, in publicly testifying that this is what happened to us. We died. We were crucified for our transgressions, and we died. Then we were buried, under the water.
And just as Jesus rose victorious from the grave with a new Life, so we also rise up out of the water to live a new life, different from the one we lived before.
This is a very powerful testimony.
For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
And, since we have died with Him, we shall also be resurrected like Him. We live a new lifestyle now, and we will be resurrected as He was to have that new Life that we haven't experienced yet, but we will.
knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.
So if we know that we've died with Jesus, then we know that we don't have to do those things we used to do. We're free from those things.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,
If we have identified ourselves with Christ, then we know that we are united with Him, and will live with Him forever.
knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Jesus died once for all, He is not on the Cross any more, He finished that work, and he was buried and rose in victory over death. Now the Life He lives, that Resurrection Life, is not able to die any more, and will live forever.
Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
So we need to think of ourselves this way, also: just because we're still living here in this World, we should not think like the World, but think higher thoughts, the way God sees us and thinks of us.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,
and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;
We should not use our bodies to do things that are unseemly or wrong; those bad habits have been broken, and we don't have to do them any more. All our addictions are broken, we're free from them.
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Come to God in prayer and Bible study, and do the good and pure and right things that He presents to us to do.
For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under Law but under grace.
We're not tied to those sinful things any more, we're not tangled up in a bunch of written rules and precepts and ceremonies--we're free! Free to do what is right, what is beneficial, what is healing.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under Law but under grace? May it never be!
This is an attitude of, "I know it's not right, but God will forgive me!" This is wrong!
Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?
We are always obeying someone, whether it is God or Satan or our own selves! Our choice is, who do we want to obey?
But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed,
and having been freed from sin you became slaves of righteousness.
As Christians, we used to be addicted to all kinds of bad habits, but when we turned to God and He saved us, Jesus bought us out of the slave-market of sin and set us free! Now He is our new Master, our Lord.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.
Paul has to put this in terms that we will understand, to give us the right picture to grasp the importance of what God has done for us in the spiritual realm.
For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
Just as before we dabbled in stuff that caught us up into addictions, so now we are to dip our toe and plunge into what is right and pure, that will lead to our being separated from the filth of the World and enjoying all the wonderful, clean, holy things of God.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
He's saying that when we were addicted, we didn't know anything about cleanness, because we were covered in the filth of the World.
Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed?
So just think, were those addictions good for you? Now you're ashamed of them.
For the outcome of those things is death.
Those things only led to poor health, poor relationships, poor attitudes, poverty in every area, leading to an early death.
But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
In contrast, like Black and White, is the difference here: Now that we are freed from slavery to sinful addictions, now we can enjoy all the benefits God put into this Earth, as well as good relationships with our loved ones, and looking forward to living forever with our God who Loves us more than we can imagine!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Because trying to follow a complicated system, and failing, results in earning the wrath of God on our sin; but God's gift that He offers everyone freely is to have a wonderful life that lasts forever, in the company of our Maker who wants to live with us, because of what Christ Jesus accomplished for us.
O my Father, You are such a good God! You have made this whole creation just to design our Earth for us to live on. And You planned for us to be Your own family, as Your children. So You had us form families here, which grew into our societies and cultures.
You have given us so many pictures of what You are planning for us spiritually in the future, just as the pictures You gave so that we would be able to recognize the Messiah, our Savior, who fulfilled all those laws and prophesies.
And what You are preparing for us to enjoy is so far beyond what we can even imagine, that You describe it mostly in what will not be there, all the results of sin. Only what is good and positive and beneficial will be there. Wow!
Father, everyone needs to hear! Everyone need to understand how much You love them! Everyone needs to know that they can be free, and go from the dysfunctional, abusive family we are in in this World into the healthy, loving, encouraging family of God!
Father, send out Your workers to tell them! Plant Your seed of the Gospel into every fertile field prepared for it, and reap Your fields that are ripe and ready to harvest, to bring in Your whole crop into Your barns.
Send out Your children to find every wandering sheep, every lost lamb caught in a pit or entangled in brambles, to free them and draw them into the safety and consolation and comfort of Your One Fold with One Shepherd.
And fill Your great House, my Father, with all your uncountable number of children, to dine together with You at Your great Banquet Table!
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language, that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever, Amen!
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Two Adams
Romans 5: 12-21
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the World, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--
Adam's DNA was damaged when he ate that piece of fruit, and because he was disobeying the commandment, he would now have to be subject to death in order to be redeemed.
Because his DNA was changed, he passed on that damaged gene to every person born since then in his genetic line.
And God cursed the Earth because of his sin, so that now everything winds down and wears out. This extended to the whole Universe, the neighborhood the Earth resides in.
And because all humanity has that damaged DNA, now our ability to choose what is right has been bent toward the wrong decision, and the compass that our conscience needs to be is not accurate, but it still works.
for until the Law sin was in the World, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
If there's no rule to break, it can't be broken.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Everybody died, even though they didn't disobey a specific commandment like Adam did. But everybody was aware that they weren't perfect, they made mistakes, they did wrong; so they all deserved to die, so they died.
Adam is called a "type" because what he did affected everyone after him, just like what Jesus did also affects everyone, also. So Adam had the first chance, and blew it, and Christ gives us all another chance to get it right.
But the free gift is not like the transgression.
A gift must be received by choice, but the transgression that damaged Adam affected all of us automatically.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
If all people have to die now, it's the common thing that happens to everybody. But when people come to God and accept the gracious gift He offers through His Son, then how much greater that is, in comparison to what will naturally happen.
The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
Another difference is that the condemnation on everyone was a result of just one disobedient transgression, but God's gift of redemption comes to justify many disobedient transgressions.
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Through one man, Adam, death was inflicted on all humanity. How much better and greater is the abundance we all can receive in the gracious gift from the one Man, Jesus Christ, applied to all of us who will receive it, to claim the victory over death and instead live forever.
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
And the one act of disobedience resulted in condemnation of death to everybody, so now the one act of obedience results in the justification to give life to everybody.
For as through the one one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
So through one man's one act of disobedience, all Mankind became rebellious beings; now through one Man's act of obedience, all Mankind can be made into righteous beings. A complete turn-around and remolding of our very beings.
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Then God gave the written Law, so that people would have a set of rules to give them a definite path to walk, and they could know when they missed the mark. Then they could count specific transgressions, instead of experiencing a general feeling of anxiety and guilt, and be able to confess the individual sins.
The more sins we are aware of, the greater is the graciousness of God in forgiving them; the higher the debt, the greater the amount of payment is required to pay it off.
so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus came to be our Christ and our Sacrificial Lamb to break the hold that sin has on all the human race. He paid the ultimate price, the full amount of the payment we all owe, buying us out of the slave-market of sin. Now we don't have to die, we don't have to fear death, because we can know that we will live forever with Him. If we decide to believe.
O my Father, the enormity of it all! That the whole human race would be enslaved to the bonds of sin and death, being totally helpless to do anything to free ourselves; and You have made the Grand Gesture in sending Your own Son, to take upon Himself the burden of this whole World, to break us out of bondage and set us free!
Father, Jesus' payment is more than enough to pay off the debt of every person who ever lived! You are not willing for any to perish, and we were all perishing! So You sent Jesus to release us!
Please send out Your workers to tell everyone they can be free, and not have to struggle any more, only to end up destroyed! O Father, they all need to hear! Every living person needs to understand how much You Love them!
You will be sending Your Son back very soon, as You have been preparing this World for the final showdown, when He will defeat all the forces of evil, and the evil one's minions, and set up His Kingdom of Righteousness, to give this Earth its Golden Age!
And every eye will see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language 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!
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the World, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--
Adam's DNA was damaged when he ate that piece of fruit, and because he was disobeying the commandment, he would now have to be subject to death in order to be redeemed.
Because his DNA was changed, he passed on that damaged gene to every person born since then in his genetic line.
And God cursed the Earth because of his sin, so that now everything winds down and wears out. This extended to the whole Universe, the neighborhood the Earth resides in.
And because all humanity has that damaged DNA, now our ability to choose what is right has been bent toward the wrong decision, and the compass that our conscience needs to be is not accurate, but it still works.
for until the Law sin was in the World, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
If there's no rule to break, it can't be broken.
Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.
Everybody died, even though they didn't disobey a specific commandment like Adam did. But everybody was aware that they weren't perfect, they made mistakes, they did wrong; so they all deserved to die, so they died.
Adam is called a "type" because what he did affected everyone after him, just like what Jesus did also affects everyone, also. So Adam had the first chance, and blew it, and Christ gives us all another chance to get it right.
But the free gift is not like the transgression.
A gift must be received by choice, but the transgression that damaged Adam affected all of us automatically.
For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.
If all people have to die now, it's the common thing that happens to everybody. But when people come to God and accept the gracious gift He offers through His Son, then how much greater that is, in comparison to what will naturally happen.
The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.
Another difference is that the condemnation on everyone was a result of just one disobedient transgression, but God's gift of redemption comes to justify many disobedient transgressions.
For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Through one man, Adam, death was inflicted on all humanity. How much better and greater is the abundance we all can receive in the gracious gift from the one Man, Jesus Christ, applied to all of us who will receive it, to claim the victory over death and instead live forever.
So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.
And the one act of disobedience resulted in condemnation of death to everybody, so now the one act of obedience results in the justification to give life to everybody.
For as through the one one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
So through one man's one act of disobedience, all Mankind became rebellious beings; now through one Man's act of obedience, all Mankind can be made into righteous beings. A complete turn-around and remolding of our very beings.
The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Then God gave the written Law, so that people would have a set of rules to give them a definite path to walk, and they could know when they missed the mark. Then they could count specific transgressions, instead of experiencing a general feeling of anxiety and guilt, and be able to confess the individual sins.
The more sins we are aware of, the greater is the graciousness of God in forgiving them; the higher the debt, the greater the amount of payment is required to pay it off.
so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Jesus came to be our Christ and our Sacrificial Lamb to break the hold that sin has on all the human race. He paid the ultimate price, the full amount of the payment we all owe, buying us out of the slave-market of sin. Now we don't have to die, we don't have to fear death, because we can know that we will live forever with Him. If we decide to believe.
O my Father, the enormity of it all! That the whole human race would be enslaved to the bonds of sin and death, being totally helpless to do anything to free ourselves; and You have made the Grand Gesture in sending Your own Son, to take upon Himself the burden of this whole World, to break us out of bondage and set us free!
Father, Jesus' payment is more than enough to pay off the debt of every person who ever lived! You are not willing for any to perish, and we were all perishing! So You sent Jesus to release us!
Please send out Your workers to tell everyone they can be free, and not have to struggle any more, only to end up destroyed! O Father, they all need to hear! Every living person needs to understand how much You Love them!
You will be sending Your Son back very soon, as You have been preparing this World for the final showdown, when He will defeat all the forces of evil, and the evil one's minions, and set up His Kingdom of Righteousness, to give this Earth its Golden Age!
And every eye will see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess in every language 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!
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
The Results Of Our Justification
Romans 5: 1-11
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Now that God has justified us because we believed that Jesus paid our debt for us, we have peace with God, we don't have to be afraid of Him any more.
through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;
Jesus has introduced us to God's grace (the favor He gives that we don't deserve), by our believing, our trusting Him to be our Savior.
and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
We rejoice exceedingly in the certain hope of witnessing God receiving the glory.
And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,
But how can we rejoice in tribulations?
knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
Okay, trials bring about a patient endurance to get through them; plus,
and perseverance, proven character;
This builds good character in our lives; and,
and proven character, hope;
When we've built a high character, then our future prospects are much brighter.
and hope does not disappoint,
And these future prospects have no chance of disappointing us.
because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God lavishly pours out His unimaginable Love into our hearts, because He gave us His own Holy Spirit to live in our spirits, actually inside us.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
While we were totally unable to do anything at all toward getting right with God, right when it was the perfect time in God's Time-Line, that's when Jesus was born, grew up, and died as God's Sacrificial Lamb, for each of us ungodly sinners.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
Humanly speaking, how often does someone actually volunteer to die in another's place?
But God demonstrates His own Love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God's Love is so far above our own human love, that while we were despicable rebels, insulting God in rejecting His authority over us, that's when He sent His own Son to redeem us!
Much more then, having now been justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Now that Jesus has splattered His Blood on the sides of His altar the Cross, which more than covers, but washes away every stain of sin from our souls, God will not pour out on us the wrath we deserve, because He poured it out on Jesus instead.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Just as I reconcile my checkbook to my bank statement by changing my checkbook register to agree with the bank, so God changes us to be like His Son, by washing away all the despicable rebellion and insulting arrogance we formerly displayed, making us over into the image of Christ.
Now that we're reconciled by being cleansed, God will continue to work on us in the power of Jesus' Resurrection Life until we are as perfect as He is.
And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Now that He has done all this for us, we rejoice exceedingly in God Himself, for who He is; in the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, the one who effected this reconciliation we have obtained with God the Father.
O my Father, I praise You for Your great abundance of lavish Love You pour out on us! Your amazing grace gives us Your goodness instead of the wrath we deserve. You have planned all this out, long before any of it ever was.
Before You created anything, You knew what You would do, how You would relate to what You made, and the ways You would fight all our fights and solve all our problems, and rescue and redeem what You let us spoil.
Father, I know I can do nothing without You. That day so long ago when You showed me that Jesus took my death on the Cross for me, I stopped trying to figure out how to live my life, and You took it over for me. You led me into the life I have lived since then, through all the ups and downs of marriage, children, widowhood, and now grandchildren. And You continue to guide my feet along the path You have put them on.
O Father, give me Your eyes to see people the way You see them, past all the negativity and cruelty and inhumanity to man. Help me to relate to them as Jesus related to the sinners He walked among while He lived His life here those 33 years.
And continue to change me, Father. Teach me Your ways, and grow me into the maturity I will need to accomplish what You have set before me to do toward the furtherance of Your Kingdom.
Keep me faithful in Your faithfulness, my Father, to persevere in the road I walk, as I interact with those whose paths meet mine, that I would be a blessing in their lives, to do them good with Your good, and to encourage them on their journeys.
Father, send out workers into Your fields. Sow Your seed and reap Your harvests, so that Your house will be filled with Your uncountable family.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the sovereign King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Now that God has justified us because we believed that Jesus paid our debt for us, we have peace with God, we don't have to be afraid of Him any more.
through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand;
Jesus has introduced us to God's grace (the favor He gives that we don't deserve), by our believing, our trusting Him to be our Savior.
and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
We rejoice exceedingly in the certain hope of witnessing God receiving the glory.
And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations,
But how can we rejoice in tribulations?
knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;
Okay, trials bring about a patient endurance to get through them; plus,
and perseverance, proven character;
This builds good character in our lives; and,
and proven character, hope;
When we've built a high character, then our future prospects are much brighter.
and hope does not disappoint,
And these future prospects have no chance of disappointing us.
because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
God lavishly pours out His unimaginable Love into our hearts, because He gave us His own Holy Spirit to live in our spirits, actually inside us.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
While we were totally unable to do anything at all toward getting right with God, right when it was the perfect time in God's Time-Line, that's when Jesus was born, grew up, and died as God's Sacrificial Lamb, for each of us ungodly sinners.
For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.
Humanly speaking, how often does someone actually volunteer to die in another's place?
But God demonstrates His own Love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
God's Love is so far above our own human love, that while we were despicable rebels, insulting God in rejecting His authority over us, that's when He sent His own Son to redeem us!
Much more then, having now been justified by His Blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
Now that Jesus has splattered His Blood on the sides of His altar the Cross, which more than covers, but washes away every stain of sin from our souls, God will not pour out on us the wrath we deserve, because He poured it out on Jesus instead.
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Just as I reconcile my checkbook to my bank statement by changing my checkbook register to agree with the bank, so God changes us to be like His Son, by washing away all the despicable rebellion and insulting arrogance we formerly displayed, making us over into the image of Christ.
Now that we're reconciled by being cleansed, God will continue to work on us in the power of Jesus' Resurrection Life until we are as perfect as He is.
And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
Now that He has done all this for us, we rejoice exceedingly in God Himself, for who He is; in the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, the one who effected this reconciliation we have obtained with God the Father.
O my Father, I praise You for Your great abundance of lavish Love You pour out on us! Your amazing grace gives us Your goodness instead of the wrath we deserve. You have planned all this out, long before any of it ever was.
Before You created anything, You knew what You would do, how You would relate to what You made, and the ways You would fight all our fights and solve all our problems, and rescue and redeem what You let us spoil.
Father, I know I can do nothing without You. That day so long ago when You showed me that Jesus took my death on the Cross for me, I stopped trying to figure out how to live my life, and You took it over for me. You led me into the life I have lived since then, through all the ups and downs of marriage, children, widowhood, and now grandchildren. And You continue to guide my feet along the path You have put them on.
O Father, give me Your eyes to see people the way You see them, past all the negativity and cruelty and inhumanity to man. Help me to relate to them as Jesus related to the sinners He walked among while He lived His life here those 33 years.
And continue to change me, Father. Teach me Your ways, and grow me into the maturity I will need to accomplish what You have set before me to do toward the furtherance of Your Kingdom.
Keep me faithful in Your faithfulness, my Father, to persevere in the road I walk, as I interact with those whose paths meet mine, that I would be a blessing in their lives, to do them good with Your good, and to encourage them on their journeys.
Father, send out workers into Your fields. Sow Your seed and reap Your harvests, so that Your house will be filled with Your uncountable family.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus is our Christ, our Lord God Almighty, the sovereign King of the Universe, to the eternal glory of Almighty God the Father, forever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come swiftly, Lord Jesus!
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
Justification Through Faith
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?
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:
Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say,
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,
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,
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
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!
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
Now not for his sake only was it written that it was credited to him,it was also credited to him as righteousness (Genesis 15: 6).
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!
Monday, October 28, 2019
Does Faith Nullify Law?
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!
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!
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