Romans 7:7-13 Live in the Light!

Romans 7:7-13  What shall we say, then?  Is the law sinful?  Certainly not!  Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.  For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”  But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting.  For apart from the law, sin was dead.  Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.  For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.  So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.  Did that which is good, then, become death to me?  By no means!  Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. 

Without the written law, people lived their lives according to their own perspective.  They had no godly standard to measure the goodness of their lives.  But once the law of God was introduced into their lives, the standards for measuring their lives became more demanding and restrictive.   A much higher demand that superseded their own perspective for living a quality life, pleasing to their Creator, was placed upon them.  Since the flesh found God’s laws impossible to satisfy, rebelliousness grew in the hearts of the people.  Paul says: Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.  In other words, once I could live according to my own way of living.  I was free from this other obligation of pleasing a higher standard, a standard that should have brought me a better life, but actually worked against me.  For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death.  Paul found that the law exposed his Adamic spirit of rebellion, contrary in nature to God’s perfection or holiness.  God’s nature, his existence, is one of holiness, perfection, contrary to Adam’s self-willed thoughts and activities.  “Not your will, Oh God, but my will,” is the nature of man.  The law is like turning on the light in a dark room.  We see this when the Lord walked in the Garden of Eden: The Light of the World walked in a pristine environment.  However, when Adam and Eve rebelled, darkness became part of the human existence.  The darkness in Adam and Eve caused them to flee from the Light of the Lord when they heard him walking in the Garden.  As Adam and Eve hid from the Lord, so does sin retreat from God’s holiness because the nature of sin is rebellion against God.  When the law is present, a battle commences between the authority of God and man’s desire for control.  Since the fall, sin has been alive and well.  Early in the Bible, we see man’s wayward struggle in the description of Cain and Abel.  When Cain is angry because his sacrifice is unacceptable, God warns him, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”  (Genesis 4:7)  Chaos and self-willed activity motivated Cain rather that obedience to God, and he slays Abel, the worst kind of sin—eliminating someone from existence.  God gave Cain a direct law, a command: do what is right.  But Cain disobeyed the law: sin, death, and punishment were the result.  

The law is good!  The law reflects God, his harmony, his peace, his gift of eternal life.  Obedience to the law is good, for it expresses God’s goodness and perfection.  Our nature wavers; we sometimes reflect goodness, sometimes man’s depravity.  But the law condemns us even though it is good.  As Paul concludes, I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.  Consequently, the law’s very nature leads us to death, for we cannot completely satisfy its demands; therefore, we are under the sentence of eternal death.  We read in God’s Word,  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  (James 2:10)  Is the law a curse then, not good?  Of course not.  The law is good; God’s holy standard is not what kills you or makes you unpleasing to him.  Rebellion, activated by the law, is what destroys your soul and defeats your spirit.  For when the light of the law was turned on in our inner consciousness, our wayward response to God’s will forced us into the darkest recesses of the room.  No matter how much light we felt in our lives, our feeble attempts to penetrate the dark were not equal to God’s brilliance.  Consequently, no matter how much light or goodness we thought we possessed, we remained under guilt, condemnation and judgment.  No one will enter God’s presence without complete righteousness, having satisfied the requirements of the law.  Without the purity of God, we are condemned to die.  As we have already read, the wages of sin is death.  (Romans 6:23)  We can be a great sinner or a moderate sinner, but that sin separates us from a holy God.  The law kills because it reveals our distance from God, exposes Adam’s rebellious nature within us.  Our old nature will never please God because it desires what Adam desired, to control and to rule.  The sinful self will never allow God’s will to be done on earth as it is done in heaven.  Those who truly pray the prayer that Jesus prayed have tasted of the things of God and said, “This is Good!” 

We are hopelessly lost if we try to live by the law through our human efforts.  Our nature is not God’s nature unless we find his grace and mercy at the cross.  Jesus bound us to his likeness when we said yes to him and became new creatures through his shed blood.  We died to ourselves and now live because Jesus died and is alive forevermore.  Our nature is no longer bound by obedience to the written law; instead, we have the law within us.  The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah’s prophecy: “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord.  I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”  (Hebrews 10:16)  The nature of Jesus Christ and the voice of the Holy Spirit lead us to obedience to God’s will.  As his ambassadors we take his message of love to the world.  Trying to obey the written law leads to death, but faith in Christ Jesus and his works leads to eternal life.  In the today’s scriptures, Paul points us away from trying to serve God through satisfying the law.  He shows us the futility of attempting to change the Adamic nature by human efforts.  He reminds us of what Jesus told Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  (John 3:3)  The law will not transform the human nature.  Only God can redeem us by birthing us anew into his kingdom.  We who are resting in Christ’s work are not only new creatures, we are a holy people.  He who is the perfect representation of God is dwelling within us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  We who are IN CHRIST stand perfect before God and all of creation.  The work of God is perfect; the work and efforts of man are imperfect.  How then should we live?  As we wrote previously, we live as Jesus said when He was tempted, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)  We listen closely to God, for He is speaking.  We who have ears, HEAR!  When we disappoint God’s nature within us by sinning, we thank God for who He is and repent of our sins.  A child who has great love for his/her parents wants to please them and expresses sorrow when he/she disappoints them.  So will we, for we are children of the Most High.  Breakfast companions reject living by the law and live by the power of the Spirit in the light of the Lord.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16)  Amen!       

Romans 7:1-6 Fruit for Life!

Romans 7:1-6  Do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives?  For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.  So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.  But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.  So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.  For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.  But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

My brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.  For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death.  Yet many of us believe that we are in the realm of the flesh.  In other words, we are not totally new creatures, but we are just partially transformed.  Or a more crass and dangerous way to consider our thoughts about God’s work is to say God does not do things perfectly.  But, everything around us in the physical world is perfect.  We have the right amount of oxygen in the air to breathe; we are the right distance from the sun for life.  Our bodies are constructed for life with an awareness of our surroundings; but we say God’s work in our spirits is not perfect.  We must beware of such thinking.  Paul says we were buried with Christ and arose with him because of faith in his works, not our own.  We entered into a new realm, a different domain.  Are we new creatures or not?  If we are not new creatures, free from sin and death, we are still in the realm of the law, responsible to the law.  Without Christ, we try to live by every jot and tittle of the law, by obedience to the law’s dictates.  In Christ, we come under the authority of the new breath within us, the Holy Spirit.  We cannot say we are alive in Christ and hang onto the law rather than follow the voice of the living God.  Obedience to God by the law is religion; obedience to God by the voice of the Spirit is faith and trust.  We who are alive IN CHRIST are there because of Christ’s life in us and not by obedience to the law.  If we are dead, the law has no authority over us so why should we live by the dictates of the law?  But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.  If the law has no hold on us, how will we be judged?  By what standard do we assess our lives?  The Bible is very explicit in this area.  You must live in concurrence with the two royal commandments given by Jesus:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you mind.  This is the first and the greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.  (Matthew 22:37-39)  Both these requirements demand a commitment to God’s voice.  As Jesus often said, Let him who has ears hear the voice of the Lord.  The heart will be hardened if we fail to obey his words.  If we live an outwardly religious existence, we will fail to find the heart of God.  God will be no more than a difficult taskmaster, asking us to do more than our flesh is capable of doing.  God has set us free from the task of obeying the law.  Rather we are a new creation in the mode of Jesus Christ, attempting to obey God through the power of the Holy Spirit.   As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  (Ephesians 5:1)  

Still, we might ask, What about sin in our lives?  Will sin destroy us despite God’s gift of salvation?  Or will the anchor to our souls, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, hold fast?  Of course, sin will not destroy us, for God has a perfect plan for our redemption: Jesus Christ.  The word says, hear the PERFECT ONE.  The perfect is Jesus Christ.  He alone can be called MERCY.  He alone can be called GRACE.  He is the epitome of all that is holy and righteous; He satisfies the perfection of God, HIS EXACTNESS.  With faith in Jesus Christ and his works, we become integrally involved in the goodness of God, receptors of everything CHRIST IS.  We receive mercy because he is MERCY.  We become FULL OF GRACE because He is GRACE.  We are not living outside of him; we are IN HIM, filled with HIS FULNESS.  We are one with him: he in us, we in him.  The lives we live are not ours but his life to live.  We follow his example.  When Jesus was tempted, He said, It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”  (Matthew 4:4)  How do we treat the world then?  Not by showing them how far short they fall from obedience to the law, but by expressing God’s mercy and grace to them.  Since we know Jesus is the full representation of God’s mercy and grace to a lost world, we have a gift to offer hurting people.  As Christians, we are not caught in a barren wilderness with no direction or sustenance.  No, we have the direction of God to love people and the ultimate direction to reveal Jesus Christ to all.  Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  (Mark 16:15)  If we demonstrate God’s love to the world, telling them Jesus is love, we are leading them to the fountain that will never go dry, a new life, a new realm.  People are not sustained in this barren world by relying on their own ideas and wisdom.  This is the blind leading the blind.  People generally lack direction, looking for the amenities of life, wandering from day to day, trying to feed fleshly motivations and desires.  Their spiritual lives are hopelessly lost in their own constructions: atheism, religion, mysticism.  When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?  Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning.  If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.  Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God.  Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.  (Isaiah 8:19-22)  Looking for answers to our biological existence without God’s presence does not bring us happiness.  As humans, we are bound by the laws of nature, community, and authorities.  Even though we are bound to our environment, the Bible says we sit in heavenly places with God.  IN CHRIST we are perfect and free even though we might inadvertently disobey a command or law set up by man.  The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.  (Isaiah 9:2)  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.  And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  (Isaiah 9:6)  Christ’s kingdom will never end.  His realm of the Spirit, the Kingdom of God, will never cease.  We who have entered into Christ by faith will never cease, for we will live in God’s eternal domain, not subject to laws but to God’s eternal voice.  We will be finally at home, free to be what God has made us to be.

Dear friends, walk in freedom; live by faith in the works of Jesus Christ.  You have died, the old man is dead.  He went to the grave with Jesus.  We have been raised IN CHRIST as new creatures, no longer holding to the law.  Our master is not the law, but the voice of God.  We live IN HIM, knowing our lives are to express his will.  When our flesh says, No, I do not want to give love, grace, or mercy to someone, we will remember God’s voice says, I ask you to love your enemies, those who are unloveable.  Then we will choose to fall under his authority and not our own.  We will pray with Jesus: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  (Matthew 6:10)  This is walking by faith and not by sight as the Bible tells us to do.  Obedience to God’s word, his will, brings internal satisfaction.  Paul went from city to city, expressing the good news: Jesus Christ has been resurrected.  Paul preached this message because the resurrection brought humanity into a new realm, an eternal one.  Many people in these cities ridiculed the message of the resurrection, thinking believers had lost their minds.  The scoffers might accept the life of Jesus and appreciate many of his teachings, but they could not and would not accept the message of the resurrection that Jesus won the victory over death.  They were like snarling, threatening dogs to Paul.  They would not accept the meat that was offered to them, something that would sustain their lives.  Those who hated him attempted to kill Paul many times.  The resurrection to these people meant that they would have to bow to an authority that could bring eternal life to them.  They did not want to release the authority to run their own lives, not to God or anyone else.  If they were to be religious, they would construct their own fleshly, earth-bound religion, even allowing them to live carnally minded and sexually perverted lives.  As the word says: But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.  They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.”  These are people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.  (Jude 1:17-19)  The resurrection means Christians have to commit their lives to the God of the heavens who has given all men a measure of faith.  They can trust in their own works through obedience to law or they can trust by faith in the works of Christ.  The community of Jews that hounded Paul were men of the law, but Paul was a man of faith.  Paul declared as we do that we have died with Christ and were raised with Christ in newness of life.  The law no longer has a hold on our lives, for we live by the voice of God as the Holy Spirit leads us on the path of righteousness.  Rejoice in your freedom as you bear fruit for God!  

  

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Romans 6:15-23 The Gift of God!

Romans 6:15-23  What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?  By no means!  Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?  But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.  You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.  I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations.  Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness.  When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of?  Those things result in death!  But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.  

You have received THE GIFT OF GOD through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, eternal life instead of death.  Because of Christ, you are eternal beings in his family.  Your hope rests not in your works, but IN CHRIST’S WORKS.  You did not change your life from death to life, Christ did.  Your holiness before God is determined by the HOLY ONE.  Freedom from sin is the key to a holy life lived IN CHRIST.  You must know that your are set free from sin because of Christ’s work before you can truly live the life of an ambassador of Christ to the world.  You used to live according to the dictates of the flesh: 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)  You used to honor the works of the flesh, the works that lead to eternal damnation; but now being free because of the love of God in your heart, you honor his works of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  You express love for the world by loving your neighbor as yourself.  Working to do good for other people; revealing the truth of a holy life is your ambition.  As Jesus said, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:12.)  IN CHRIST, you have become a slave to righteousness.  Your life seeks to honor Christ.  When your thoughts are on God, you love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength because you know you have been set free from sin and death.  This is the life of a Christian: no other life satisfies his or her soul.  Singing the song of gladness the Spirit places in your heart, you live by the Spirit’s will not your own.  

But we ask ourselves, what about the sin in our lives?  If we are holy, slaves to Christ, his workmanship, why are we sometimes caught up in wrongdoing, and why does our attitude not always reflect Christ?  These are important questions for Christians.  We know we cannot mimic the ways of the world and then claim we are living IN CHRIST.  We cannot live a secular life and then proclaim we are spiritual.  We cannot obsessively desire more and better things in this life, living in discontentment, and then say we are satisfied with the work Christ has done in and through us.  The Bible says, But godliness with contentment is great gain.  For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.  But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.  (1 Timothy 6:7-8)  In today’s passage Paul says, But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance.  We are no longer Romans with allegiance to the flesh and the things of this world.  We live by the Spirit of God.  When we fail, when our spirits seek fleshly solutions to our lives or when we indulge the flesh by doing things contrary to God’s holiness, we repent out of love and loyalty to our Savior.  We are his, bought by a high price, so we repent of our sins.  When Rome invades our lives, we seek the sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, because the Bible feeds our souls.  What about chronic sins—those we repeat, knowing they are wrong, outside of God’s holiness.  Foremost, we no longer live by the law that condemns us.  When the early church pondered circumcision and the law, the disciples and Paul concluded that none of them were able to satisfy all the law’s requirements on their lives.  The law only condemned them.  We should not immerse ourselves in sin, but when we fail, we should consider this an outcropping of the old man who is alive in our Adamic DNA.  Our hope is not in restructuring Adam’s DNA, but in the new creature that God has created in us.  We are dead to sin and alive in Christ through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  The old nature is terminal, the new creature is eternal.  As we focus on God and his work, chronic sin loses its hold on us, and the old nature grows weaker, losing its preeminence.  We ARE God’s ambassadors in this world.  Sin deflects from God’s goodness and love; obedience to him enlightens the world to his nature.  Praising Him for who He is, revealing him to this world, is our duty and joy as his ambassadors.   When you despair because of sin in your life, look to Jesus Christ and to the new creature He has established.   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.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.  (John 3:16-18)

Alive IN CHRIST, we are considered dwelling places of the Most High, temples of God.  Our temple has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.  As temples, the voice of God is within us.  We should be sensitive to that voice.  In the tabernacle that Moses built, there was a room called the Holy of Holies where the Ark was placed.  From the top of the Ark underneath the cherubim’s wings came the voice of God.  Moses went into that tabernacle to listen to God’s voice and to follow his instructions.  We are that holy place.  God has made us holy.  His voice dwells within us, and we follow him as He directs.  In the Old Testament, a cloud always hovered over the tabernacle.  When the cloud moved, the tabernacle was taken down and moved with the cloud.  When the cloud stayed over a certain location, the tabernacle stayed in that location.  The voice of God was always in that tabernacle.  We who are alive IN CHRIST also move in this world as He directs.  We have been sanctified, set apart for his purposes, and we are dedicated to God’s will.  The tabernacle in our lives will be moved many times.  Wherever we settle, we will worship God, praise him for his goodness, direction, and comfort.  He has made us new creatures with a new destination.  We who were indistinguishable from the rest of mankind have received his favor.  We are now his forever: you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.  He will never leave us, nor forsake us.  We will never have to say: Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lemasabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:45)  Jesus paid the price: He was forsaken, but God redeemed him, raised him from the dead.  Dear friends, as new creatures IN CHRIST, you will not be forsaken.  Your sins will not separate you if you hold your faith in the One who paid the price of death for you.  Believe that!  For God is not a liar.  But we do not use our freedom to fall again into sin.  As Paul wrote to the church in Galatia:  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  (Galatians 5:13)  As God’s ambassador, serve others humbly in love.      

Romans 6:8-14 Under Grace!

Romans 6:8-14  Now it we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.  The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.  For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.  

Why is sin no longer our master?  What is the purpose of the story of Jesus Christ being raised from the dead?  These are questions we sometimes ponder in our religious activities and thinking.  Why do we read the word of God?  What makes the Bible so precious to us?  The answer is in the above passage: Now it we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  When we talk about Christianity, we speak of a parameter extending beyond this temporary existence: eternal life with God.  Christians know this life is not all there is.  Life is not just an accident: something that is because it is.  A Creator who has always existed designed life.  Christianity merges into this power that will never cease.  Since Christ was raised from the dead through the power of the Holy Spirit, we who believe in this resurrecting power through faith in Jesus Christ and his works will arise also.  Death no longer has mastery over him (Jesus).  If we abide IN HIM, death is no longer our master. Therefore, the Bible says we are alive forever because of the power of God in us.  Consequently, we count ourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.  This is cause for great rejoicing and for complete commitment to God.  The Bible says, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.  (Hebrews 12:1)  We must flee from sin because it leads our feet into temptation and causes us to struggle with the faith we have in Christ Jesus.  Sin leads us to unbelief, to an Adam centered life.  Sin desires to end our lives and is lethal to our Christian walk.  Adam’s sinful disobedience removed him from the Garden of Eden, and he received a sentence of death.  Instead of immortality with God, the dust of earth would be his and his progeny’s destiny.  The Bible warns us about living in rebellion.   Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.  We are to live a good life for God is good.  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.  (Matthew 7:9-12)  As Christians, we are instruments of righteousness, forsaking the sin that so easily besets us.  We will consider all temporary waywardness in our souls as an aberration.  We will not dwell in darkness, constantly doing evil.  We will consider the fleshly part of our mortal lives as having no influence on our righteous souls.  God has redeemed us through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  JESUS THE CHRIST has made us perfect before all.  No one can condemn us, for we have been bought with a high price: the blood of Jesus Christ.  

The law would place us under the master of the flesh, for our sins would be ever before us.  The law condemns us, but Christ redeems us.  Consequently, we no longer live by the voice of the law or instructions of the law; no, we live by the voice of the Holy Spirit within us.  As the Bible says, The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  (John 6:63)  We obey his voice of comfort and guidance that leads us to serve God.  We reach out to mankind with love, preferring others above ourselves.  The apostles lived by the leading of the Holy Spirit.  Nothing deterred them from following God’s will in their lives.  In the city of Philippi, Paul and Silas were followed around by a demon possessed girl.  She was a fortune teller who was given that gift by a demon.  She shouted about Paul and Silas: “These men are servants of the Most High.”  But, a demon was shouting this truthful statement about the apostles.  Being men living by the voice of the Holy Spirit, Paul recognized this fact and cast the demon our of her.  This action of Paul’s caused him and Silas to be cast into the deepest part of the Philippi dungeon.  Before they were thrown in the dungeon, they were beaten severely with rods.  Seemingly, an awful result for following the voice of God.  But God is dealing on an eternal level, not an earthly or fleshly level.  Within that dungeon the voices of two men could be heard praying and singing praises to God.  The apostles were praying and singing to God when an earthquake struck that prison.  The shackles on their bleeding bodies broke loose and the doors of the prison opened widely.  They were free to run.  But the voice of God within them had them stay in that dungeon.  The jailor was going to kill himself, for he knew the authorities would kill him if any of his prisoners escaped.  Paul stopped him, “We are here.”  The jailer went to Paul and asked him, “What must I do to be saved?  How can I have eternal life?”  Paul responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and YOU WILL BE SAVED!”  (See Acts 16 for this account)  That is what the Bible is about: salvation, eternal life.  We can pray and sing in any prison life brings our way, for God is Lord of everything!  

When a person takes a hatchet and chops down every bridge between God and himself or herself through unbelief and fear, there is no way to eternal life.  God will not force his mercy and eternal grace upon that person.  The timeless God will give that person his or her wish: to remain finite in a world dictated by time.  Death reigns in time, but eternity rests in God.  He alone possesses eternal life.  Freedom comes to the timeless ones living by God’s grace, but bondage comes to those who are caught in time without a way of escape.  They will serve their master, the devil, with their lives dictated by fleshly desires.  Our God has given us a way to timelessness through the resurrected Jesus.  If we plant our hopes and faith in Him, we will be eternal, for we will be resurrected through faith in him.  Why should we hold sin in abeyance?  Why should we not commit to the life of self-interest, self-direction, and the fleshly pursuit of happiness that we see all around us?  Christians do not submit to such a life because we display a powerful alternative that is eternal, not temporary.  We manifest the attributes of God on Earth, not the characteristics of the first Adam.  God is our master—sin shall no longer be our master, because we are not under the law, but under grace.  We are no longer under condemnation and the sentence of death for our souls.  No, we are under the mercy and grace of the living God, a life of eternity.  As Paul will write a little later in this letter: But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness.  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.  (Romans 8:10-11)  Walk in his life and light today!     

Romans 6:1-7 Set Free in Christ!

Romans 6:1-7  What shall we say, then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.  For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

We know the law manifested the sin within us.  Without the law we would not realize our wayward nature: how it opposes God’s perfection, his righteousness.  Outside of the law, we would have thought our own laws for ruling ourselves, our societal and cultural laws, would be enough to please a holy God.  But God’s law revealed our imperfections and our need for us to improve in every way to please the Creator of all things.  Consequently, the law exposed our trespasses against God’s holiness, revealing many signs of unworthiness in God’s sight.  As we have already read, The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (Romans 5:20-21)  We might look at this condition of mankind before the law like a room.  Prior to the law, this room had some light penetrating it from the outside, casting shadows on the walls of the room.  The room was grey in color: not everything in the room was distinct, not everything was in correct or perfect order, but there was some light.  People worked in this environment, attempting to do right, behave pleasantly, maybe even trying to participate with others in a positive manner.  This light from the outside was God, but with the light coming through the windows the room never totally filled with the light of God.  Eventually, with the presentation of the law to the Israelites, light came into the midst of the room of mankind, somewhat dispelling the darkness. This light revealed clearly what was wrong in mankind by identifying the disorder and chaos in the room.  Condemned by the law, people were convicted of their sinful nature.  Attempts to please this light led to failure, so men and women fled to the corners of the room.  They hid because the law could not change them or rescue them; the law merely exposed their nakedness, their sinfulness.  As the law penetrated every part of their lives, they realized they were more sinful that they thought.  Their serious trespasses against God’s holiness alienated them from God.  Yet where sin increased, where man saw its pervasiveness, grace increased all the more.  Though the light of the law pointed out sins, God had a plan to redeem everyone in the room of mankind.  Grace walked into that room through the Son of man, Jesus Christ.  He who is perfect brought perfection to that room and a path to the very heart of God.  God’s salvation plan would restore all who would put their faith in Christ’s works and not their own works.  But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression—it is by grace you have been saved.  (Ephesians 2:4-5)  

Paul tells us in today’s scripture, since we have accepted in our hearts such a wonderful plan of redemption, why are we still living hidden in the dark corners of our lives.  If we believe in the redemption qualities of Christ and have died to sin with him, why are we still living lives of chronic sin as slaves to sin.  Surely, we do not believe that our darkness reveals God’s grace and mercy more clearly.  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means!  God’s salvation for us is meant to reflect his goodness, his love, his tender mercy towards the world.  He has given us a new life in Christ—a life to live for him.  The old man has died with Christ.  Jesus’ death is our death.  His life is our life.  The old man was caught in the sins of a self-willed life.  His me-first attitude often resulted in the corrosion and in the destruction of what was good and holy.  Why choose to live this kind of life any longer when you have been set free?  Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  But the good news is that we are no longer in that grave where Jesus was entombed, but we have been raised with him into a new life.  We are no longer in our grave clothes, for just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.  This new life is eternal; we who are IN CHRIST are his workmanship.  We possess his likeness, his perfection, his holiness.  Consequently, why are we still living in the corners of the room that was once dark, without much light.  Christ has come to our room with grace, mercy and deliverance.  Whosoever will can take hold of that truth and come to the light.  We are no longer citizens of the darkness, slaves to self; we have come to the light WHERE CHRIST ABIDES.  John declared that God is the Light and in him is no darkness.  He went on to say, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  (1 John 1:7)  This efficacious work of the blood is ever active in our lives.  The blood of Jesus cleansed us yesterday; it cleanses us today, and it will cleanse us tomorrow and for all time.

If we go on sinning rather than living a new life in Christ, sin pollutes our lives.  Sin obscures God’s will for our lives.  If we allow chronic sin in our lives without repentance, we dissipate the vision of God’s grace and mercy.  One basic reality of the Good News we must never lose is our hope of Christ’s redeeming power.  When we fail in our Christian walk, when we occupy the dark corners of our lives, we should repent, get up, and move in faith towards our lovely Savior.  Truly, our holiness is his work, not ours.  “Hear ye him,” is God’s request for us.  God is pleased with us when we walk in the light of Christ.  When we are his ambassadors, representing his goodness, not our goodness.   Failures to please God do come in our flesh, for we are but humans.  We sometimes succumb to the nature of the old person, but we do not stay there.  We repent and place our hope in Christ Jesus’ works alone.  Now, if someone wants to stay in sin such as adultery, claiming God’s grace and mercy is sufficient, beware; willful indulgence in a sinful life is shaking your fist at God’s work through Jesus Christ.  Repentance and sorrow should always be evident when sin comes into our lives.  Waywardness does not have to disconnect us from God if we hold fast to Jesus Christ and his mercy and grace.  We walk not by our works, our personal light or rules: we walk by faith in the redemptive plan of God.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)  Whoever believes in God’s plan will not perish.  His plan is his Son.  Our plans of redemption, making us better though our efforts, will never satisfy God.  Our plans are like the light pollution that causes us not to see the Milky Way clearly at night.  Our plans have some light in them, just as cultures and societies had some light before God’s law was given.  But this light is not redemptive light.  Eighty percent of Americans cannot see the Milky Way clearly because of the light pollution coming from the surface of the earth.  The Milky Way consists of approximately 200 billion stars, yet most Americans are unable to see them.  Be careful  Christian friends: sometimes our personal laws, our good works, our attempts to be sinless can obfuscate the light of JESUS CHRIST and his good works for us.  If we give our own good works, our plan of restoration, preeminence in our serving God, we will never see clearly God’s magnificent, glorious, salvation plan, just as we do not see clearly the billions of stars above us.  Let God open your eyes today to the freedom that is yours in Christ Jesus because anyone who has died (been crucified with Christ) has been set free from sin.