Romans 3:9-20 Peace on Earth!

Romans 3:9-20  What shall we conclude then?  Do we have any advantage?  Not at all!  For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.  As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,not even one.  Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.  The poison of vipers is on their lips.  Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.  Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.  There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 

For Christians the Bible is the revelation of God, explaining that we have been created in God’s image to have dominion over other species and our environment.  Although we have been given such a powerful position in his creation, God sees us as disobedient, degenerate, and unthankful.  There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  Out of this caldron of waywardness, God chose an ethnic group to receive his laws: his light on how to live, think, and gain acceptance with him.  The law illuminated God’s nature and his righteousness.  However, this knowledge makes us accountable to God’s demands, his commandments.  Rather than making us obedient to God, the law exposed our sins and our tendency to disobey his authority.  The Bible describes this disobedience and self-will as fleshly and describes the products of a fleshly life outside of Christ: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.  (Galatians 5:19-21)  Since God is timeless, we know that any discordant or adverse behaviors in our lives are ever present before God’s all-seeing eyes.  As the Bible says, All have turned; there is no one righteous, not even one.  Obviously, a just God will judge sin, and the wages of sin is death.  (Romans 6:23)  The opposite of death is a life of harmony and peace in God with a harvest of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  There is no law needed to control these attributes of God.  No judgment will fall on those who are in Christ and display the fruit of the Spirit.  We know Jesus walked this earth doing good.  He did the Father’s will at all times.  Even on the way to the cross, He submitted to God’s will, not his own.  Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39)  Later, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”  (Matthew 26:42)  In spite of the excruciating physical and emotional pain, Jesus ignored his own inclinations and submitted to his Father’s authority and will.  Since we know that Jesus could have called down an army of angels from heaven to rescue him, his life and death should challenge us to live by his example of obedience to God.  Though we are not presently with him, and we often do not understand the trials of life, we do understand that Jesus is alive.  We live by faith, not by sight.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Even though our flesh is disobedient at times, we will not serve God through the law.  Instead, we will trust in the Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit through the shed blood of Jesus.  

Just as Jesus did not trust in his physical senses to guide him, we cannot know God through our human awareness.  Even our knowledge and wisdom do not help us understand spiritual realities.  We might surmise there is a God or a reality other than the one we inhabit by our assessment of the detail and complexity in the world and the universe around us.  Our environment might awe us, but it will not bring us into relationship with God. In finality, we must accept the Bible’s view of God as Creator and designer of all we know.  We enter the door to the Creator’s dominion when we place our faith in the Word of God: Christ, the Son of God.  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.  (John 1:1-4)  When we discover God through faith in Jesus Christ, God becomes a reality in our lives.  We know him, for the Spirit of God comes to reside in us.  This step of faith, believing in Jesus Christ and his works, not ours, cleanses us from the consequences of sin.  Yes, the above scriptures indicate that no man has been able to please God, all have been contaminated by sin.  Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood.  (Genesis 8:21)  But God did not leave us without hope.  Jesus said, we can be born again as new creatures before God’s eyes, no longer judged by our Adam nature but by the nature of Jesus Christ.  Yes, Adam is still part of our biological life, but we have a new born again life, under the grace and mercy of God.  Jesus has removed our sins as far as the East is from the West.  Never again will we be considered absolutely degenerate, for God has placed Jesus’ sinless life in place of our sinful souls.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are now considered precious, holy sons and daughters in the very family of God.  No longer are we enemies to God.  No longer strangers, but friends, blood-bought relatives to God.  Our knowledge, wisdom, and senses may fail us in our search to find God, but faith in Christ makes us new people, God’s people, made in his image; for Christ is the perfect representation of God.  In this world, we are a collection of the redeemed from every nation.  As we read in the Word: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  (1 Peter 2:9)  

Dear friends, during this Christmas season, give thanks for the precious gift of Jesus Christ.  He was sent to redeem the whole world from sin.  He came to bring peace to the hearts of all people.  We who are IN CHRIST should share this message with passion.  JESUS SAVES!  If you have grown cold in your belief, stir up the spirit of joy within you.  Discover again the Good News that a baby was born in Bethlehem who would restore people to God, to break down the enmity between man and God.  Jesus blesses all people, all nations, all ethnic groups, all races with his presence.  He can change any person from being a stranger to God, to a friend of God.  As Christians, rejoice, sing Hallelujah!  We have been given a holy gift that will never end.  Rejoice, for we depend on the efficaciousness of that gift.  And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,  “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”  (Luke 2:8-14)  From the beginning of time, man has struggled in recognizing the Creator God and his authority.  Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden.”  (Genesis 3:1)  Yes, God truly meant for us to rest securely under his authority as He rested on the seventh day, but we did not.  We tweaked God’s creation by eating of the tree of knowledge.  From that time on, we have been creating our own reality.  Sadly, this reality has been one of conflict, wars, and rumors of wars: unrest.  Christ Jesus came as the peacemaker, the day of rest.  No longer should we strive for our perfection; no longer do we need to compete with each other.  No, Jesus has come, and as the angel said, Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on Earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.  (Luke 2:14)  With all that is within us, we can enter once again into that perfect rest that Jesus Christ has won.   

Note:  We will take a Christmas vacation break for the next 2 weeks.  God bless you.  Merry Christmas!

Romans 2:25-29 Circumcision of the Heart!

Romans 2:25-29  Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised.  So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised?  The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.  A person is not a Jew who is one only outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical.  No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.  Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.

Circumcision is a physical cutting away of the flesh.  God demanded that this surgery should be done as s sign of the Jews’ separation from the flesh.  He desired to set apart the Jews for his special people; consequently, circumcision became part of the Jew’s way of life.  Paul says, fulfilling this command of circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law you have become as though you had not been circumcised.  Otherwise, circumcision is not a permanent condition.  Yes, in the physical, it is permanent, but circumcision was an exercise to set oneself apart for God.  If one violates God’s commandments, his will for your life, then you are not really setting yourself apart to God.  You have rejected God’s authority in your life and replaced it with your own authority.  This accepting our authority, our will, is indicative of man’s Adam spirit because the spirit of Adam will not follow God’s will at all times.  Paul describes this desperate condition of failing God: What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?  (Romans 7:24)  Sin and disobedience to God leads to death, not life.  Paul is saying that circumcision of the flesh did not save him from disobeying God.  His flesh was too willful, too strong, too demanding, too desirous of going its own way.  In his letter to the Galatians, Paul writes about confronting Peter on something that Peter should not have done.  Peter would not eat with the Gentiles when the Jewish brethren were with him.  Peter and other Jewish Christians were following the traditions of the Jews, believing eating with Gentiles was sinful.  Paul says, When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?  You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles.  Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.  And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law.  For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.”  (Galatians 2:14-16)  Paul reminds Peter that true righteousness comes only through faith in the sinless one, Jesus Christ.  Paul’s words were a good reminder for Peter because Peter had violated the law as much as any of the apostles when he denied Jesus in the courtyard of the high priest.  He not only denied Jesus, which is a lie, and no liars will enter the kingdom of heaven, He brought the spiritual into his denial: Peter swore, “A curse on me if I’m lying—I don’t know the man!”  And immediately the rooster crowed.  (Matthew 26:74)  Where would the curse come from?  Probably, he intimated that God would curse him if he were lying. 

Paul understood that circumcision of the heart was very transitory.  We might desire to do good, we might attempt to be righteous, but circumcision of the heart or any dedication that we have established to please God will not last, for whether physical or the intent of the heart, we are of the flesh, with strong fleshly desires.  These desires will cause us to succumb to sin, to violate God’s authority and will for our lives, just as Peter did when he lied and when he discriminated between the Jews and the Gentiles.  He was wrong in both cases, consequently, under God’s judgment, which is death: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 6:23)  Paul, the chief of sinners, knew well that only faith in Jesus Christ could save him from certain judgment.  The Adam nature will be judged; therefore, the Adam nature must die, and it can only die vicariously through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.  He knew that he had to believe that Jesus’ death was a substitute for his death.  But praise God, he also knew that Jesus was raised to life, giving Paul an understanding that faith in Jesus brought new life to him, regardless of the Adam of the flesh.  Paul knew he was a new creature, born again, fulfilling the requirements to see the kingdom of heaven, as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3.  The law could not bring about a new creature, but Jesus could through his works of salvation, not Paul’s works: circumcision and obeying the law.  My old self has been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless.  For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.  (Galatians 2:20-21, NLT)  Peter was a new creature.  Paul reminded him of that fact when he saw Peter attempting to place the law again on the back of the Jewish and Gentile Christians.  Paul knew the law would destroy the works of Christ, for people would start believing again that something other than faith in Christ could usher them into heaven.  He understood that Christ alone pleases God.  The Bible is clear: Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  Other attempts to get to God, other gates, will be destroyed by God’s righteousness.  Christ alone is perfectly righteous and holy, for He is God.  No other attempt for eternal life will be accepted by God the Father.  When you look at cults and other religions, you always find man’s efforts in the middle of their attempts to find peace, eternal life.  People we have seen who follow these false pathways do not find what the heart of men and women long to embrace.  Only Jesus satisfies the soul.  As the Bible says, For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  (1 Corinthians 3:19)

We find in Hebrews 13 that Jesus went outside of the camp.  He literally went outside the camp, and He figuratively went outside the safe encampment of the Jewish religion, the Jewish culture.  He was as the dead animals who bodies were dragged out of the camp after their blood was taken to be sacrificed in the temple, considered unclean.  He was hung on a cross.  In the society of his day, anything hung on a cross was considered accursed.  Jesus died the death of a criminal, a lost human being.  He died outside of the camp, and according to those who saw him, He was unclean and under a curse.  We have an altar from which the priests in the Tabernacle have no right to eat.  Under the old system, the high priest brought the blood of animals into the Holy Place as a sacrifice for sin, and the bodies of the animals were burned outside the camp.  So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood.  So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore.  For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.  (Hebrews 13:10-14)  He suffered outside of the camp so He could be the great deliverer of all people.  He no longer belonged to just the Jews; He paid the price for sin outside of the encampment of the Jews.  He was rejected by the culture of circumcision and law.  They saw him as a contaminator, someone who would destroy their religious culture.  But Jesus actually fulfilled every jot and tittle of their religion.  He satisfied the law’s requirements.  He brought absolute integrity to the circumcision ceremony.  IN JESUS, the law and circumcision are no longer needed.  As God, He was and is completely righteous, under the absolute authority of God the Father.  Therefore, let us offer through Jesus a continual sacrifice of praise to God, proclaiming our allegiance to his name.  (Hebrews 13:15 NLT)  Consequently, today we remember that we are those who have been washed by the blood of the Lamb, and we now stand with hearts circumcised by the Holy Spirit.  We accept that we are powerless to lift ourselves from sin, and we rejoice in the work of Christ at the cross.  May the light and love of Jesus go forth anew and afresh in our lives today.  

Romans 2:17-24 Christ Fulfills the Law!

Romans 2:17-24  Now you, if you call yourself a Jew; if you rely on the law and boast in God; if you know his will and approve of what is superior because you are instructed by the law;  if you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself?  You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

In the above passage, Paul addresses the Jews and their religious knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors.  The Jews relied on God’s law to save them, boasting that the law revealed God’s truth to humanity.  Through the law they could understand God’s nature: his holiness, justice, and perfection.  For them, the law sketched out the profile and essence of the Creator, removing him from the darkness of the unknown into the light of their reality where they as humans existed.  By knowing these truths about God and his nature, they believed they could teach the world about this wonderful Creator who chose them as his people: For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.  The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.  (Deuteronomy 7:6)  God gave the Jews the law, his truth, in the wilderness.  However, Paul says, since you have this precious law and since you know so much about the law and claim that it is the only truth, why do you not follow the dictates of the law in your own lives.  Why are you still lawbreakers, knowing that the law condemns lawbreakers?  You who preach against stealing, do you steal?  You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?  You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?  You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law?  He says, of course you claim to conform to the law, but your lives, your conversations, your attitudes reflect another story.  Your lack of adherence to his law is an affront to God, causing Gentiles to scoff at the Jewish God.  God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.  Paul believed the Jewish people were eloquent in describing the basic tenets of the law and in defending the law; however, they seemingly were unable to satisfy the law’s commandments because of their Adam nature.  The law is good; it revealed not only the nature of God, but the nature of mankind.  As surely as it paints God as good and righteous, it concomitantly paints Adam's nature as self-serving and wayward.  Paul emphatically states: the Jews are not able to fulfill God’s demands on them.  Paul understood well the contradiction between the flesh and the law, for he was a Pharisee of good standing.  He tried to fulfill every jot and tittle of the law.  Paul states: If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.  (Philippians 3:4-6)  He thought of himself as a righteous Jew, without fault in his attempts to follow the law’s dictates.  But as a Christian, Paul found in himself a spirit that ran directly counter to the law’s demands: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  (Romans 7:14-17)  The law is good; consequently, it highlights sin’s hold on the corrupt Adam spirit. The law’s demands reveal why mankind without Christ cannot take hold of eternal life, for the law shows the cancer within mankind.  The law condemns man to death because the law cannot remove the cancer of sin or release mankind to serve God forever.

Paul speaks mainly to Jewish people in today’s scriptures, but he also talks to the Gentile, who has developed his own laws in his conscience.  We all have laws that we follow, even though they are not scripted, written down somewhere.  We try to follow these laws judiciously; however, we often break these personal laws as often as others break the written law.  “I will never treat my wife or husband like that again.”  “I will never again get that out-of-control.”  I will never lie again.”  “I will never gossip about him again.”  “I will never again envy someone else’s goods or lifestyle.”  “ I will never complain to God again about anything.”  “I will always obey the speed limits.”  Our list can go on and on.  The laws we establish in our minds are good: they are there to govern our behavior in positive ways, pointing to a better, more loving and caring life.  When we fail because our old nature goes its own way, we condemn ourselves.  We wonder why we seem weak and helpless to implement these good laws into our lives.  As Christians, we know our failings cause other people to discount the God we claim to serve.  Rather than harvesting people for God, we sow seeds of discord and unbelief when we fail to do what we and others know is right.  And we know these failures are sin: If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.  (James 4:17)  Sometimes we even lose our children and loved ones to the world’s ways of living because of our failure to follow our own laws of how to treat people.  Laws, whether in our conscience or written in God’s Word will never free us from the Adam nature and its tendency to go its own way.  Paul found this sin abounding within himself.  He cries out in Romans 7, who can free me from this bondage?  His answer is clear: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.  For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.  And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  (Romans 8:1-4)

Paul tells the Jewish people that they need to put their faith in a Savior who has fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law.  He also implies to the Gentiles that they too need a Savior who is completely righteous, who never failed to obey his own laws and the Father’s will.  Jesus always did what the Father wanted him to do.  From the time He was baptized in the Jordan River, He did the works of God as the Holy Spirit directed him.  We who are in Christ are free to do the will of God, free to love and serve people.  We are free to hear the voice of God within us.  We are free indeed.  When Paul wrote to the church at Galatia because they were going back to the law, he said, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  We are no longer condemned by the script of the law or by the laws in our minds.  They will only condemn us, not free us because when we depend upon our own abilities we will fail.  Instead, when we live according to the Spirit, the Spirit gives us life and power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.  Jesus has saved us; He has made us part of the family of God.  Our nature has been changed.  We love people.  We care for people.  We try to be good.  Well, how is that different from following the law?  The law keeps us focussed on our failures and away from conversing with God.  When we feel condemned, we isolate ourselves.  We tend to work on being better, but when we follow the Spirit, we know we are in the family of God, and we have fellowship with God at ALL TIMES.  We know He will strengthen our souls through Jesus Christ.  We know Jesus will always be our advocate.  He will always defend us through his blood that He shed for our redemption.  Yes, we are perfect at all times because of Jesus.  We have eternal life within us because of Jesus.  We have a life of victory because of Jesus.  Sin we might.  As Christians, we are sorrowful and will confess our sins, but we can say as Paul told Timothy, I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.  (2 Timothy 1:12)  So, we will boast in Christ, not in ourselves, not in our abilities, not in our strength.  We live not by some code, either written or spoken.  May people come to Christ through our testimony.  We live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord and by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  


 

Romans 2:12-16 Jesus, Our Righteousness!

Romans 2:12-16  All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.  For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous.  (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law.  They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.  This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

All our secrets, everything about us, will be known on the day of judgment.  How will we measure up to Jesus Christ, the perfect one, the sinless one?  If we fail to live up to his perfection, we will not exist with God forever.  God will not allow anything imperfect to exist forever in his presence.  God is holy; therefore, we must be holy.  We must be like God.  Is this possible?  Are we who live in an environment of sin able to live a perfect, holy life?  The Bible clearly says all of us have sinned, none of us are perfect, and we have all chosen our own way to live, under our own authority instead of God’s authority.  At the beginning of creation, we see Adam and Eve choose their wisdom and knowledge over God’s wisdom and knowledge.  They chose not to rest in God’s blissful domain, called the Seventh Day, the sabbath.   Instead of rest, they chose to work by going to the tree of knowledge and eating of its fruit. This work on the day of the sabbath brought in the storm of sin and disobedience.  Rather than following their holy God, they became free agents, doing their own thing when it pleased them.  In today’s passage, we see what disobedience to God’s authority brings to man: harsh judgment.  Failure to obey either our own laws, embedded within our consciences, or God’s laws, written in his Word, will bring us into disfavor with the Creator.  God’s judgment is based on the perfect template of righteousness: Jesus Christ.  Jesus in the flesh fulfilled the law; He alone satisfied the laws requirement: complete obedience.  He obeyed the Father’s will at all times.  He fulfilled God’s purposes for his life.  Because He was directed by the Almighty Holy One, his life on Earth was perfect, satisfying God’s requirements of him.  We who are locked in sin cannot fully meet the requirement of the law: perfection at all times, perfect obedience to God’s will for our lives.  We fail—all have failed, no one is perfect.  As we read in Psalms and again in a little later in Paul’s letter: There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.  (Romans 3:10-12)   Consequently, mankind needs another way to God, a way that will not fail.  In the New Testament, the preaching of the gospel was known as THE WAY.  Of course, every Christian knows that the way comes through the gate of Paradise, Jesus Christ.  He is the only one who saves us from judgment outside of the law or under the law.

The requirements of the law are written on our hearts.  Humans understand that they should treat others as they would want to be treated.  Humans comprehend that love brings harmony and peace while hatred causes disruption and chaos.  Humans realize that the will of God is for them to do good and not evil, but their nature is competitive, self-seeking, not willing to be subservient to others, or to serve others before they serve themselves.  As we see when delving into history or even the activities of our present day, the behavior of human beings has caused and is causing tremendous pain in the world.  Even in our modern day, we see people so degraded by sin that they sell members of their race as commodities or treat each other in abusive ways for their own pleasure.  We know that hundreds of thousands of our fellow human beings are killed each year.  Sadly, collectively and individually our human nature reveals rapacious, destructive, and hurtful behaviors outside of Jesus Christ.  Breaking our own understanding of what is right and wrong, or what our conscience tells us, we fall into darkness.  The Bible does not lie when it states, There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.  (Romans 3:22-23)  Likewise numerous Old Testament verses confirm this truth: Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins.  (Ecclesiastes 7:20)   We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each  of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  (Isaiah 53:6)  Many other verses in the Bible emphatically verify mankind’s wayward and sinful nature.  Without the saving blood of Jesus, we who were made in God’s image turn ourselves into a threat to the very existence of mankind.  With nuclear power we can obliterate life; we can cause the earth itself to be toxic to life.  How far we have strayed from that glorious day in the beginning when God proclaimed that we who were made in his image were very good.  But God had a plan and his answer remains the same through millenniums of time, mankind needs a Savior, a Redeemer, to rescue them from the stormy seas of sin, from their self-destructive nature.  Of course, we know this is Jesus.  

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law.  Sin will be judged: sin will be counted unworthy to enter the portals of heaven’s domain.  As we have said before as Paul nails down this theme, sin is a cancer, whether it exists apart from the law or under the law.  The Bible is very clear.  People who try to justify themselves before God by their own righteousness will find themselves naked, exposed, without excuse for their wrongdoings.  All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.  (Isaiah 64:6)  God will judge every secret, every hidden thought, every activity that we did in the dark.  He knows everything about our lives.  Are there any righteous amongst us?  No not one.  Not one of us can stand before God completely justified by our own way of living on Earth.  We need a Savior.  We need an advocate before the righteous Father.  We need a high priest as an intermediary between God and ourselves.  Of course, Jesus Christ is that one.  He did miracles on Earth to prove that He was from God.  No man from the beginning of time had done such miraculous things.  He died for each of us, fully satisfying the penalty of sin for us.  We are special to God because we have been made in his image.  We are the biological specie that can hear his voice, know his love, and reciprocate by honoring him, by giving him our love and dedication.  He has given each of us a special name.  Each of us is unique, loved by him because of what He created in us.  We will be glorified: all creation will know us on the day He brings glory to us because we are his sons and daughters, bought by the blood of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.  Because of that sacrifice, we are very special people right now on Earth.  Lift up your heads, realize you are free from the constraints of the law, either yours or the written law.  You no longer live by rules but as Jesus said, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)  You are free, free to be the daughters and sons of the living God without the fear and torment of the enemy.  Enter into God’s sabbath day of rest, the Seventh Day.  Adam and Eve failed: they worked on the sabbath.  You, dear friends, rest on this day.  Cease from your own efforts, know that Christ has made you free, free to live in the bountiful presence of the living God, awaiting the day when He welcomes you home.  Amen!        

Romans 2:5-11 Rest in Freedom!

Romans 2:5-11  But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.  God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”  To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.  But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For God does not show favoritism.

God does not judge as we judge.  We judge according to the deeds done in the flesh.  If a person seeks to do good and does good or positive things in life, we believe that person is good.  In fact, we might consider him or her without fault.  But God shows no favoritism in his judgment.  He not only looks at our good deeds and activities, He looks at the thoughts and considerations of the heart for those who persistently seek him.  Are we always doing good in our hearts?  Are our intentions positive and constructive?  Is there any waywardness from God’s goodness in our hearts?  The condition of the heart is the essential component in God’s evaluation of us.  But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.  Who is unrepentant?  There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  (Romans 3:11)  We are unrepentant when we do not honor God’s authority and seek his will at all times.  Of course at all times is the contract breaker.  Outside of Christ, the man and woman of the flesh tends to do what is right in his or her own eyes.  If we feel someone has treated us unfairly, we strike back.  If someone’s words have hurt us, we retaliate, either actively or passively.  Of course, we could go on indefinitely, describing the reactions of the flesh in this world of conflict and trouble.  God’s will is definitely not done consistently in anyone’s life.  If we were each a blank sheet of paper with God’s will written on the paper, the story would always be good and positive, but we are not a perfect record.  There are black spots and smudges on our papers, times when we have crossed out lines or even paragraphs in our remembrances because we cannot face the reality of those events, for they were self-serving, corrupt, dangerous to others and ourselves.  No, the will of God is not recorded on our sheets of paper at all times.  Sadly, THERE IS NO ONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE remains a truism before God’s timeless, penetrating eyes.  Regardless of our culture, race or ethnic group, God looks favorably on those who attempt to do good the majority of time through his grace and mercy.  We were made to do good, not evil.  We were made to rest in God’s domain, for God is at rest.  We are to be at rest, at peace, with the world and each other.  We were not made to strive, compete, and battle with each other for a place of recognition or worth, too work by fleshly means to be good and not bad.  Pastors and teachers often remind us we are made in God’s image.  That is the truth, but God is at rest.  We are not: we are possessed with turmoil and struggle, often working every day to succeed, to protect our self-will and worth.  However, our daily existence should be in harmony with God’s purposes, comfortable with his will for us.  We need to enter that place of Sabbath rest by faith.  Our striving, our struggle, our works do not please God, but the fruit of his work in us through Jesus Christ pleases him.  There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,  just as God did from his.  Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.  (Hebrew 4:9-11)  As Christians, we rest in God’s work.  His hand through Jesus Christ has been writing the tale of the redeemed on the pages of our lives, and those pages are completely acceptable to God.  As we follow the Lord, we will do as He commands.  When Jesus sent the disciples out to preach the Good News, the Bible says, And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.  (Mark 16:20)  They went about doing good. 

Yes, there will be signs following a believer.  But when Jesus described the way into the kingdom of heaven to Nicodemus, He did not express how many good works he needed to earn heaven.  Jesus told him he must be born again.  Of course that idea confused Nicodemus.  He was a Pharisee whose life was based on doing good deeds, following the law of God.  What Jesus expressed to him was an anathema to his lifestyle.  Why be born again?  And how does one become born again?  How could a human and his nature be changed into a new form of being?  Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council.  He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God.  For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”  Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases.  You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”  (John 3:1-8)  In this passage we see God the Son telling Nicodemus that there is a MUST in his life, and that MUST is that he be born again.  Of course, later Jesus tells Nicodemus that He is the gate to eternal life, to the kingdom of God: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)  What then is the key to Paul’s proposition in today’s focus?  Is it that those who do mostly good in their lives shall inherit eternal life or is it as Jesus said, you must be born again?  When we look at our verses, Paul writes, But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.  If all have gone their own way and do what is right in their own eyes as the scriptures state, we fall into Paul’s description of self-seeking.  Of course, this is hard for us who believe we are rather good people.  We do not swear, we do not strike back, we are patient, caring, loving people for the most part.  How can we be judged so harshly?  We must remember that God is without sin.  He will not accept sin into his domain.  All sin must receive recompense or judgement.  No sin will enter his presence; all sin must be dealt with; no cancer of sin will be in his kingdom.  Later on in Romans, Paul tells us how to eradicate sin permanently, and that is through the cross that dealt with sin, so we might enter into fellowship with God without contaminating his presence.  Believers place our faith in Christ, and the just live by faith.

Dear friends, as you leave this breakfast table, understand that IN CHRIST you are completely free from the eternal consequences of sin.  Christ paid the price for your sins.  As we read in the Bible: So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  (John 8:36)  However, your love for Christ should compel you to live a life free from overt sins.  Your daily life should be dedicated to Christ.  You are, as Paul and the disciples were, a bond-slave to Christ.  You no longer live for your own purposes, but for Christ’s purposes.  Your claim of being a Christian should be demonstrated by a wholesome, upright life.  Paul warned Christians to guard their freedom in Christ, not to go backwards but to move forward as soldiers of the cross: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.  (Galatians 5:1)  Christians should want Christ to be honored in every part of their lives.  We do not want to take away from God’s work in us, and we do not want to confuse or to distract others by behaving in ways that do not honor Christ.  We are eternal beings, heaven bound.  The writer of Hebrews says,  let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.  (Hebrews 12:1-2)  When we were raising our children, the older three often played school when they were young.  Christine, the oldest, was the teacher, and Jeff and Doug her pupils.  One day Jeff came in bemoaning the fact that he never got to be the teacher.  He had a strong argument to support his bid for change: “Don’t you think if Christine was a real Christian, she would let me teach sometimes?”  Now his logic may have brought a smile to my face, but it also made me think that our testimony does need to line up with our behaviors.  And Christine was easily persuaded to give Jeff a turn at teaching without casting blame on her witness for Christ.  Jesus is the light of the world.  We bring ourselves to Jesus, casting all our cares on him, trusting him to use us for his glory.  Today is the day of rest, in the year of the Lord’s favor.  Today is the day to completely bury yourself under the blood of Jesus.  Today is the day to celebrate your new life in him while doing good to all people.  As the children of light, let us bring that light to the whole world for God.  Your Savior lives, and you live in him for God’s purposes in glory, honor and peace.  Amen!  

Romans 2:1-4 Respect God's Kindness!

Romans 2:1-4  You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?

In this passage, Paul refers to his previous statement about humans being given over to a depraved mind, and he enumerated several of these sinful attitudes: envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, and the like.  He also stated that those immersed in sin, gossip, slander, and hate God; they are insolent, boastful, and arrogant. They even invent ways to do evil, as we see on the internet in our present day.  All of these attitudes within humans come under the heading: they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God.  (Romans 1:28)  Most of us look at this list of destructive activity, of sin, and say that it does not describe us.  I am not a killer, a hater, a person who does not acknowledge God.   But Paul says we are not to pass judgment, for we are from the same mold as people who do these things or have done them.  We are susceptible to all sinful activity.  The Pharisees thought they were very holy and believed their righteousness exceeded that of the ordinary person.  The people believed this too and highly esteemed the Pharisees who received places of honor at celebrations or community events.  However, Jesus saw them differently: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”  (Matthew 23:27-28)  He saw the insides of the Pharisees: their thought life, self-talk, secret wishes.  People knew them from the outside, but God knew their hearts.  Paul’s list of sins describes our insides, the times we wish to do evil to other people, or to join in to activity contrary to God’s will.  Jesus says, if you lust after another person in your thoughts, you might as well have participated in this activity in reality, for God knows your mind and its imaginations.  We will all be judged on our secret thoughts, our wayward self-talk, our wicked wishes outside of Christ.  Rather than depend on God, we often saturate ourselves with anxiety and disbelief, thinking that God cannot handle our circumstances, disbelieving that all things work together for good to those who believe.  So Paul says, when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?  Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?  God does not judge us immediately with destruction when we flee from trusting him, instead, He grants us forbearance and patience, gives us time to return to his truth.  We must always remember God is timeless.  Nothing in our lives will escape his righteous eyes.  He sees our past and our present as the same.  Only the blood of Jesus can change that.

We are always under God’s grace, but we are also under the scrutiny of God’s candlelight.  If we were to sell chicken eggs at the local market, we would put our eggs through a candling device. The outward shell of eggs causes all eggs to look similar, but by testing the egg we can see the inside.  If there are imperfections, the egg is discarded; the perfect ones are kept to sell.  Just as Ananias and Sapphira could not escape the penetrating gaze of the Holy Spirit, neither can we escape God’s knowledge about us.  Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property.  With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.  Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land?  Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold?  And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?  What made you think of doing such a thing?  You have not lied just to human beings but to God.”  When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died.  And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.  (Acts 5:1-5)  God sees all of our imperfections.  Without the covering of the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, we stand naked before the God of Eternity with everything exposed to him.  In the Old Testament, God often speaks about his judgment on the Jewish people, sometimes depicting them as a woman whose nakedness is exposed to the heathen world.  Under God’s judgment, all will know the discrepancy between our testimonies and the realities of our existence.  All will understand our hearts: the motivations behind our actions, our willingness to exploit others, the secret longings of our sinful nature.  As the Bible says: The Lord does not look at the things people look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.  (1 Samuel 16:7)  God will not accept imperfection in his domain for imperfections are a cancer to the Kingdom of Heaven.  Faith in Jesus Christ and his works makes us new creatures.  God’s candlelight verifies us as newborn, alive in the Spirit, in the image of God’s Son.  We who trust in Christ have renewed our hearts and minds, not by good works or self-improvement, but by fixing our eyes on the one who loves us and gave his life for us: CHRIST JESUS.  Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  (Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB)  Jesus separates the fleshly man from the spiritual man by circumcising the heart with a sharp two-edged sword.  We no longer live by the energy of the flesh, but by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The old man ceases to exist in God’s eyes, but the new man becomes God’s treasure, transformed by the cross. 

SAVED BY FAITH, we are alive in Christ—a simple proposition, yet greatly profound.  Faith alone accesses the Kingdom of God through the gate Jesus Christ.  There is no other way to eternal life.  The greatest illustration of faith in our opinion is the account of the thief on the cross.  One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah?  Save yourself and us!”  But the other criminal rebuked him.  “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”  (Matthew 23:39-41)  What faith it must have taken for him to look to this man as the Son of God.  They were all in dire circumstances, dying on crosses as finite men.  Hearing Jesus’ groans of agony, the travails of the fleshly Jesus, he still believed in the divine Jesus.  Not considering his rational mind, the thief placed his faith in the power of God through Jesus Christ by saying to the other criminal: Don’t you fear God?  How many of us would have considered Jesus as the Son of God in that situation?  We probably would have been like most of the disciples, absent from the scene, fearing for our lives.  But this thief, expressed unimaginable faith by saying, remember me when you come into your kingdom.  Jesus accepted him.  The thief did not win paradise because of his good works expressed through his life.  No, he would win paradise and identification as a new creature in Christ because of simple faith in the man dying beside him.  The lowly thief had saving faith, a belief in something beyond his rational mind and his present condition.  By asking Jesus to remember him, he verified his faith in the Father God who created everything out of nothing.  He believed the Creator existed and that He lived in Jesus, reflected HIS GLORY through Jesus.  Mankind has struggled from the beginning of time:  Do we believe in God as the creator or do we believe in something our minds can understand that set creation in motion.  This faith issue is glue that causes every page of the Bible to stick together.  From ancient times to the present, man has searched for an answer to creation other than God.  His innate nature is to substitute his reasoning in place of believing in God and his authority.  That is why the Bible explicitly states man’s self-centered nature.  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him (Jesus) the iniquity of us all.  (Isaiah 53:6)  Likewise many New Testament scriptures confirm man’s delinquency: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  (Romans 3:11)  Given the state of sinful man and our wayward hearts, none of us should stand in judgment of another, but we should keep our hearts and minds steadfastly on the Lord.  Bless each of you as you follow Christ.

Romans 1:28-31 Every Kind of Wickedness!

Romans 1:28-31  Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.  Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

In the above passage, Paul continues his exposition on the state of mankind since abandoning God as Creator and Lord.  Since the beginning of time, humans failed to honor God, choosing their own gods, making them in their own image.  Likewise, they chose to worship heavenly bodies or other creatures.  They even made grotesque images to worship from their own imaginations.  Because of this rejection of the Creator, Paul writes, they became filled with every kind of wickedness.  We call this wickedness sin, a willingness to obey the authority of self-will over the will of God.  They suppressed the truth of life by delving into all kinds of evil, greed and depravity.  Of course this self-oriented, wayward life brings judgment from our Father God, for sin brings disharmony and destruction to his creation.  Death is the product of sin.  The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  (Romans 1:18-19)  In the previous breakfast, we wrote about the resulting disharmony of sin to the point of suppressing the natural use of man’s sexuality for unnatural behaviors.  Of course, such an act of sexuality, intercourse with ones own gender, if carried out to its fullest extent, challenges the perpetuation of the human specie.  Perhaps this kind of self-will, self-love, can be considered the pinnacle of man going his own way, choosing his own lifestyle rather than God’s intentions.  But in today’s focus, we can see other challenges that man has ingrained into his own existence, challenges that threaten his welfare, even the survival of his race.  Not only are humans full of all kinds of wickedness, They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;  they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.  Man’s willingness to follow his own way, his own gods, indicates giving himself over to a depraved mind.  His father is not only Adam, who forsook God’s will and authority in his life, his father is also the Evil One.  As Jesus said to the self-righteous Pharisees, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God.  I have not come on my own; God sent me.  Why is my language not clear to you?  Because you are unable to hear what I say.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  (John 8:42-44)  Of course, the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus at that time.  We might say that we would not want to kill Jesus, but mankind in general has that spirit of destruction within him.  Inherent in man’s nature is a self-willed spirit that rejects God’s spirit, bringing death and disharmony into life.  This is a cancer on man’s soul, brought into his very existence by the sin of Adam, a cancer eventually contaminating all things with death, even nature.  Later in Romans we will read that the whole creation groans to be delivered from this bondage to sin.

Paul’s explicit description of man’s lack of being right with God paints a picture of gloom and darkness without God in the scene.  Obviously, Paul wants the Romans to understand that they need a Savior, someone who can redeem the nature of man, making people right with God the Creator.  Of course, we know who that is: Jesus, the Christ, the Lord.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:17)  Jesus came to bring light to that picture of gloom and darkness.   When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  (John 8:12)  We who are IN CHRIST JESUS will never walk in darkness because we will always have the light of life in us.  We will always know who the Creator is; and because of our faith in Jesus’ life and work, we will always be right with God.  As followers of Christ, we have the righteousness of God within us.  Yes, we have all sinned and we still struggle with fleshly waywardness in our lives, but we have a righteousness within us that does not come from our works, but from Christ’s works.   There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  (Romans 3:22-23)  We are justified before God; we do have right standing with him.  As Paul said, we do have the nature of Adam embedded within our lives, but we are not without hope, for Christ has come to redeem us, not to condemn us.  Therefore, whosoever believes in him, will have life eternal, for Jesus has come to bring life and to terminate the cancer of sin.  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.  (Philippians 3:9-11)

How wonderful it is to know Christ and the joy He brings to our lives.  Walking with him in the power of the Holy Spirit should put a governor on our flesh.  We should no longer let our fleshly desires rule our lives, not that we are saved by works, but that we honor Christ and the Creator of our lives by avoiding the excesses of the flesh.  Sinfulness, waywardness, unthankfulness lead to sorrow and finally death.  God’s children are not of that mode.  We are those with faith in God and a song in our hearts.  We are those who sing the song of the thankfulness of the redeemed.  I waited patiently for the Lord;  And He inclined to me,  And heard my cry.  He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.  He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the Lord.  (Psalm 40:1-3)  As we hold fast to Christ, we live his life the best we can as ambassadors for God to this world.  When the weaknesses of the flesh penetrate our thoughts and behaviors, we look to Jesus.  We give him our temptations, our inappropriate actions.  Life should be joyous because of whom we serve.  He brings harmony in life; He brings creation in life, not destruction.  Jesus came to give life.  Jesus is the truth of life.  Jesus said, The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.  (John 10:10)  The world hates him as a Savior, for it wants to save itself.  As a wayward child, the world says: “I am in control, I do not need your help Jesus.  I reject your description of our lives.  We can please God by our own efforts.”  The Pharisee spirit is resplendent in the world’s system.  Yet, as we look around, what do we see?  Wars, rumors of wars, poverty, slavery, wickedness of all kinds.  For thousands of years, this kind of activity has gone on, but the world will not repent and turn to the Creator.  Instead, through their own gods, their own activities, their imaginations, they tell God through their words and their deeds, “We do not need your help, your righteousness, your Son.  WE CAN DO IT!”  If you see any of this self-willed attitude in yourself, turn to Jesus, repent, and yield the reins to him.  Jesus will lead you on the path to peace and joy in the Lord.  It is a good thing to return to the joy of your salvation.