Romans 5:1-5 Confident and Joyful!

Romans 5:1-5  Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.  Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.  We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance.  And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.  And this hope will not lead to disappointment.  For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.  The joy of the Lord is our strength.  His plan for us brings him great joy.  Jesus makes something new out of that which was not.  God had a plan to make us into his image when we were but dust, nothing.  We existed after creation, but we were not truly like God in our behavior in that created state.  Able to communicate with God, we walked in the Garden, fellowshipping with our maker.  Yet we find Adam and Eve failed to be like the God they imaged because of their wayward and rebellious hearts.  They rejected God’s authority and will.  But God’s heart held a redemption plan, not to salvage a fallen creation, but to bring them into his family.  He made that which was not into the form of himself, the Mighty God, with his own heart.  In the fulness of time, He would send his only begotten son, Jesus.  He knew we needed a Savior for us to be eternal, good, filled with his wisdom and knowledge, and revealing his nature.  The answer is, we needed a Savior who is God, who would place his heart into us.  Salvation means God has come to us in the nature of Jesus Christ.  But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.  (Galatians 4:4-5)  We who know Jesus, have seen God, for Jesus is the perfect representation of God.  When we look into the face of Jesus by faith, we see God, his nature.  We are hidden IN JESUS CHRIST, but not only are we hidden in him, He places the wonderful Holy Spirit within us.  Therefore, we have the heart of God in us: the dynamo, the Holy Spirit, functions in our lives.  His voice is in us.  In every way, we are God’s own, adopted members of his family.  He paid a tremendous price for us: the humiliation and death of his Son.  Now we know God’s plan from the beginning has been to make us his, as a part of his family.  We also know with confidence that the culmination of this plan will not lead to disappointment but to eternal life.  We cannot fully image this in our finite robes, but God has told us through Jesus’ words that we are new creatures, born again unto his plan and not the plan of the flesh.  Our lives are not defined by these old bodies that we carry around daily.  No, we have a new likeness, one that is made like Christ.  We are new creatures bought with the precious price of Christ’s blood.  As Paul goes on to tell the Galatians, Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”  (Galatians 4:6)  

There is great joy in God’s plan because we are constantly in his presence.  Ananias and Sapphira did not understand the reality of God with us at all times.  They thought as many religious people do that God is with us only when we do religious things, such as worshipping in the Temple.  But when they lied to the church, Peter reminded them that they could deceive people, but they could not deceive God.  But there was a certain man named Ananias who, with his wife, Sapphira, sold some property.  He brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount.  With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest.  Then Peter said, “Ananias, why have you let Satan fill your heart?  You lied to the Holy Spirit, and you kept some of the money for yourself.  (Acts 5:3-5)  When the couple were struck dead by the Holy Spirit, the whole church knew that God’s presence was a reality at all times.  This new understanding of God brought great fear upon the believers, for they realized they were constantly in God’s presence: their lives were hidden IN CHRIST and HE was in them.  This new reality of dwelling in the hearts of men was integral to God’s plan from the beginning.  We are born again, capable of dwelling IN GOD and HE IN US.  This should bring us great joy and not fear, for He has made what was lost to him his own possession: members of his family.  God is with us: his righteousness and goodness are with us at ALL TIMES.  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  (Ephesians 2:6-7)  Even if heaven and Earth disappear, we will not, for God exists beyond the realities of matter.  As limited human beings, our minds sometimes fail to comprehend God’s redemption plan, but the Holy Spirit testifies to us that we are the sons and daughters of God.  Likewise, as new creatures, we hold onto the faith of Abraham: he believed God could raise the dead and make everything out of nothing.  Consequently, nothing is beyond God’s ability to create.  He can make dust into his own children with his nature and his heart of love.  

Today, do our faces shine with joy with the knowledge of the Good News?  Or are we beset with gloom by the condition of mankind?  Are we looking at the sicknesses and sins of the world or are we looking at the magnificent face of God?  When Moses came down from Mt. Sinai, his face radiated with so much light that the Israelites feared him.  He had to call them to come near him, so he could speak to them about what God had given him.  As he spoke to the Israelites without a veil on his face, they observed the brightness of God’s glory reflecting from his face.  The astounding brightness of Moses’ face proved that Moses had been with the God of creation and was different from the rest of the people.  Their faces did not radiate God’s glory; their faces reflected the circumstances of their daily lives.  Moses’ continence, reflecting the glory of the Lord, verified that God was with him and that Moses provided a conduit for God’s words to the Israelites.  When Moses was not actively expressing God’s words to the people, he covered his face with a veil.  Moses had the Shekinah glory on him at all times, signifying God’s presence, but as he mingled with the people on a daily basis, he veiled his face, so they would not fear him.  For the many Israelites who did not know him personally, Moses, with his veiled face, was like everyone else, even though the fire of God reflecting on his face was still present.  We who are IN CHRIST, filled with the Holy Spirit, have the Shekinah glory within us.  We are the light of the world, we are the salt of the earth.  People should know us as who we really are: children of the Most High.  Jesus said, You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.  Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:14-16)  Do we walk around with veiled faces or are we vibrant testimonies of God’s light on Earth?  We will only be the latter if we have the fruit of the Spirit evident in our lives, especially JOY.  We will rejoice if we truly believe the message of redemption: God has made us his children, created something so unimaginable that the angels could not anticipate the product: a born again child of God, created in his image, with his heart.   We are new creatures, alive forevermore because God can raise the dead and make something out of nothing through Jesus Christ’s work on the cross. 

Romans 4:16-25 God Will Provide!

Romans 4:16-25  Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham.  He is the father of us all.  As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”   He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”  Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”  The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. 

We who believe by faith in the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not are Abraham’s children.  We are his children because we are people of faith: For we walk by faith, not by sight.  (2 Corinthians 5:7)  Abraham did not waver in his belief of the God of enormous creative powers, even in raising people from the dead.  Of course, we know Jesus was raised from the dead, and by faith we believe in his resurrection from the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Abraham’s faith in this God of enormous power did not falter because he did not doubt God.  Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.  What did God promise to Abraham?  God promised to Abraham: I have made you NOW a father of many nations.  By faith Abraham received immediate transformation from a person dead in his body unable to produce children to a father of many nations in the NOW.  God made Abraham a new creature by the act of faith that Abraham possessed in God’s creative powers.  Abraham did not have to wait to be the father of many nations: no, God said he IS the father of many nations.  Abraham was fully persuaded that God keeps his word, that God’s words create new things out of the old.  Of course, Abraham was very old; Sarah was very old.  In the normal turn of events, nothing new could come from Sarah’s womb.  The natural man with his or her knowledge could fully understand the reality of such a situation.  But Abraham believed God regardless of the facts of his life.  He could say with the psalmist: I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.  (Psalm 34:4)  Abraham believed in a reality beyond what he saw with his eyes. 

Despite their faith, sometimes the natural consequences of life doom people into believing they have no hope.  We see this often in the New Testament when Jesus deals with the blind, the deformed, and even the dead, those who have no hope.  For them, where is this God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not?  Where is the God who corrects what has been damaged or destroyed?  Human survival beyond a prescribed number of years is a condition with no hope.  Chronic or terminal health problems are situations with no hope. The condition of man’s wickedness and destruction is one with no hope.  Abraham faced the same difficulties of no hope because his body could not father children; yet God promised that his progeny would be as plentiful as the stars.  God said to him, now you are the father of many nations.  Not tomorrow, not the next day, but now you ARE THE FATHER OF MANY NATIONS.  Abraham believed God and never wavered.  In fact, he was strengthened in his faith as the years went by, even in the dire circumstance when God tested his faith by asking for Issac’s life as a sacrifice.  Abraham said, God will provide.  Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”  “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.  “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”  Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.  (Genesis 22:7-8)  God will provide the lamb, for God keeps his promises.  Abraham did not allow his natural knowledge or wisdom to mar God’s promise to him.  We often find faith difficult when adverse winds blow against the promises God has given us.  How awful it is when hope goes out of our sails, we sit in the doldrums, and life’s answers escape us.  That is when we must go to God’s Word to rediscover God’s promises for those who live by faith.  For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.  And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.  Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.  (Romans 8:14-17)  We are God’s children NOW, co-heirs with Christ NOW.  Regardless of our circumstances, God has provided a sacrifice, the LAMB OF GOD.  The mountains we are climbing might seem steep, the cost too much, but God is saying, my daughter, my son of faith, I have already provided for you.  Do not fear.  Look to Jesus, your loving Savior.  

Sometimes, life seems too difficult, too overwhelming.  The mountains in life seem too rugged, too high.  Where are you God?  I do not know where you are—I cannot find you.  I do not know how to live now.  That is when the faith of Abraham overcomes the world, when we believe God is the one who raises the dead, who creates everything out of nothing: no elements, no matter, nothing.  Yes, He is that God, the beginning and the ending.  We can trust him in everything.  As the Bible says, Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.  (1 Peter 5:7)  As our personal God, He keeps his promises.  What promises?  My child, you are mine.  I have given you life, and I will perfect MY WORK in you.  This is why we must believe God can use everything in our lives.  Abraham was prepared in the natural to fulfill God’s requirements of him: The fire and wood are here.  In spite of the circumstances, he believed God had made him a father of many nations.  He could see with his natural eyes that Issac was the first step in fulfilling that promise.  However, if necessary, Abraham was willing to give up the hope in the natural for the work of God in his life.  Sometimes, we need to give up on hope in the natural for the work of God in our lives.  When things do not turn out the way we want or desire, we need to turn back to God and say: I will trust you, Lord, for I know that it is your work, not mine.  I will let you make the decisions for me.  I will do everything possible to live the life you have directed me to live.  I will place myself under your authority, for I know you have made me your child.  You have revealed your great power through Jesus Christ and his righteousness.  I am alive because of that work.  Now, Lord, let your Spirit comfort my soul.  I need your help, oh God, to live this life.  Children of faith, at the top of the mountain, you will find that God has provided for you.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. ”NO, IN ALL THESE THINGS WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS through him who loved us.  (Romans 8:35-37)  Knowing you have the faith of Abraham, rejoice!  

Romans 4:13-17 His Mercy Endures Forever!

Romans 4:13-17  It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.   For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.  And where there is no law there is no transgression.  Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.  As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.”  He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed—the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

Greater minds than ours have struggled with the law over the centuries, whether the law determines our perfections and imperfections.  Yet as we read God’s Word, one thing seems clear: mankind has fallen far from his once perfect state in the Garden of Eden.  We are prone to rebellion and sin.  Paul writes:  And where there is no law there is no transgression.  This is true because without the stated law, we do not have a consequence, but since we are in a state of sin, our hearts condemn us.  The law was not given to save us but to measure our imperfections, which are many.  These imperfections cannot be eradicated by obedience to rules, regulations, or anything else, for we have within us a rebellion that began with Adam and Eve and is a part of our human nature.  In the Old Testament, God tells the Israelites to build a tabernacle, a place where He could abide.  Yet, we know God does not inhabit temples made by human hands.  However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands.  As the prophet says, "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.  Could you build me a temple as good as that?” asks the LORD.  “Could you build me such a resting place?  Didn’t my hands make both heaven and earth?”  (7:48-50)  However, in the wilderness, God asks the Israelites to build a place where He could dwell, a perfectly made place where He could settle in their midst.  Have the people of Israel build me a holy sanctuary so I can live among them.  You must build this Tabernacle and its furnishings exactly according to the pattern I will show you.  (Exodus 24:8-9)  By giving the Israelite these precise instructions on preparing the tabernacle and its contents, He taught the Israelites that He is a God of order, exactness, completeness, perfection, and holiness.  He informed them that if they built the tabernacle according to his exact standards, He would come down and abide with them.  His instruction for the tabernacle confirmed God’s exacting nature.  All of creation reveals God’s perfection, his rejection of disorder, confusion, or chaos.  The intricacies of life, of living organisms, reveals God’s exactness.  The Israelites could follow God’s demands precisely when building the tabernacle, carefully measuring and constructing a perfect tabernacle, as they worked with material and space.  Even though men can do such things, God chose a special person to head the construction of the tabernacle.  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Look, I have specifically chosen Bezalel son of Uri, grandson of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.  I have filled him with the Spirit of God giving him great wisdom, ability, and expertise in all kinds of crafts.  He is a master craftsman, expert in working with gold, silver, and bronze.  He is skilled in engraving and mounting gemstones and in carving wood.  He is a master at every craft!  (Exodus 31:2-5)  God insured the correctness of the tabernacle and everything in it by having Bezalel, a man filled with his Spirit to oversee the project, including the Ark of the Covenant, the furnishings, the beautifully stitched garments, and the anointing oils.  By the Spirit’s inspiration, Bezalel and his craftsmen could make a place of perfection where God could dwell.  

However, the spirit of man is not an inanimate object, for we are living entities made in God’s image.  The law, a measurement of righteousness, will not satisfy God’s requirements of perfection that He seeks from us.  When He demands that we provide a board of 32 inches in some area of our fleshly tabernacle, we often come up with perhaps 32 and a half inches or 31, never quite perfect.  As we see in the Israelites’ tabernacle, God will not dwell in inexactness.  He demands perfection, holiness.  Consequently, God cannot dwell within the imperfect.  We are contaminated by sin: our failures to achieve, to obey, to repent.  Well then, will paying better attention to the measurements demanded by God help us to be living temples of his Spirit?  This is the struggle of trying to serve God by obeying rules and regulations.  We are trying to satisfy the spiritual needs of our lives by measuring them better, more precisely.  Do this!  Do not do that!  Be nicer, kinder, more loving!  Avoid these thoughts, those actions!  Measuring up to God’s standards presents a struggle when we try to be a place where God can dwell.  However, we are never quite exact and holy for we are not inanimate material.  We are living, thriving human beings who are making hundreds of decisions every day.  Thousands of words and ideas are going through our minds daily.  How can we be perfect?  How can every word or thought line up to the perfection of God?  Later in this book, Paul writes: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.  For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me.  (Romans 7:21-23)  How can we be holy?   Today’s scriptures reveals how we can be right with God, completely holy, perfect in his sight at all times.  We need the faith of Abraham.  Abraham received the promise of rightness before God by faith, long before the law was given.  What did he believe?  What faith did he hold?  Abraham believed two things that make every Christian alive in God.  First, he believed in the God who brings the dead back to life.  We believe in the Jesus who was resurrected.  We died with him by faith, we live IN HIM by faith.  Secondly, Abraham believed in the God who creates new things out of nothing.  We who are IN CHRIST ARE NEW CREATURES.  God has made us new, we are born again.  This was Abraham’s faith.  He believed God could do what He said He could do, that God would fulfill his promises to him.  This is the same answer Paul offers to the Romans as we continue our journey through his message to them.  When he asks who can deliver him from his bondage, he says, Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!  (Romans 7:25) 

Breakfast companions, God will fulfill his promises to you if you stand in Christ with the same faith that Abraham professed: believing God resurrects the dead and makes new things out of nothing.  We know Christ was resurrected from the dead, so will you be resurrected.  Jesus was the first fruit, or the first one to go from the body of death to everlasting life.  You, too, will follow him in that transition from death to life.  He also, through his blood, has made you a living, eternal creature by transforming that which was dead in sins and trespasses to be alive in freedom and holiness.  The tabernacle and everything in it had to be made or built according to God’s holy standard, his exactness.  You, dear friends, are not exact, holy, perfect, but there is one who is all of that and more.  His name is Jesus Christ.  When we have faith in his works and not ours, we are taking perfection into our souls, the exactness God demands.  His master craftsman, the Holy Spirit, is perfecting his work in our flesh.  As the psalmist wrote: The Lord will perfect that which concerns me; Your mercy O LORD, endures forever; Do not forsake the works of your hands.  (Psalm 138:8)  God is changing us day by day.  We are becoming more like him as we give him authority in our lives.  The voice of the Holy Spirit leads us through this life, giving us an understanding of who we really are.  We are eternal creatures, lights to a dark world.  We need to hearken to his voice and to follow him daily.  The Good News that we need to propagate is that Christ in us is our hope of glory and we can abide with God forever.  Abraham’s faith made him right with God.  Our faith is Abraham’s: This faith believes God resurrects the dead and makes new things out of nothing.  We who are IN CHRIST have been resurrected and are completely new.  Old things have passed away.  Live this life in Christ by faith, believing in his works, not yours.  Portray Jesus to the world by your words and actions.  Do not go back to the beggarly elements of this world, living as the world does.  This will bring chaos into your lives; eternal death will be the result of such living.  Nothing but exactness, holiness, completeness, perfection will please God.  He will dwell with no other conditions.  Christ is the perfect one, the perfect sacrifice.  Place your faith and life in his perfection and rest in his love.