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.