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.  

Romans 5:18-21 Grace Reigns!

Romans 5:18-21  Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.  For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.  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.

Where sin and all of its ramifications were exposed by the law, grace came in abundantly to deliver us from the consequences of sin—death, separation from God forever.  Without the law, we never would have known the extent of sin and of how much God despises sin.  Adam’s corruption was complete; he was made in the image of God, but his behavior was the opposite of what God wanted for him.  God wanted fellowship and allegiance from Adam, but Adam chose division and self-interest.  Adam wanted to determine what was best for him.  By deciding to tweak creation when he ate of the tree of knowledge, he chose his wisdom over God’s wisdom.  His wisdom, ever so weak and incomplete, became his guiding force.  The Bible says, For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight.  (1Corinthians 3:19)  What man can understand creation and God himself?  We are all hopelessly and helplessly caught on this little planet in the midst of timeless space, not truly knowing anything but what our senses can determine is real or consequential to us.  But Adam was given a gift.  All human beings have received this gift that transports us to the very heart of God, a golden path that leads us past the wonders of creation—the universe, the galaxies—to the very presence of God.  That avenue to God himself is faith, a powerful gift internalized in our being.  If we use this gift to recognize and to honor God, we will be accepted by God and blessed with eternal life.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.  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 transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  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.  For it is by grace you have been saved, THROUGH FAITH—and this is not from yourselves, IS THE GIFT OF GOD — not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:3-9)  All humans have a choice whether to activate this gift or not.  Faith that leads us to God is readily available, but faith has to be put in action.  We might sense in our spirits that there is a Creator, but without faith in God’s salvation plan through Jesus Christ, we remain lost in our sins.  God’s plan is perfect.  Through our faith in Christ and our resulting perfection comes allegiance to God and unity with him.  Since we place our faith IN CHRIST’S WORK and not our own, we boldly approach the inner sanctum of God’s presence, hidden in the works of Jesus Christ: He in us, we in him.  Because of Jesus, we have the grace, mercy, and peace of God in us.  We who are imperfect in ourselves are justified through faith in Christ’s sacrifice.  

Sometimes our faith becomes inactive.  We seemingly hit the doldrums in the sea of life.  With our sails slack because we don’t feel the wind of the Holy Spirit, situations, events, and relationships are not as blessed as we desire.  Our spiritual lives are adrift without clear direction.  The gift of faith in us seems to be inactive; we wonder if God has stopped speaking to us.  Our coveted relationship with him seems weak.  Too many hardships in our lives, too many unanswered prayers, too many lost friendships, too much sickness and sadness.  “Where is this God in whom I have put my hopes and desires?  Why am I in the doldrums of my life?"  As believers, we must know that if we seek God in these times of stagnation and inertia and listen for his still small voice, He is always there.  God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.  (Hebrew 13:5)  These spiritual valleys can be times of pruning and new growth where we hear the voice of God anew:  “Where is your hope, my dear daughter or son?  I love you!  I have not abandoned you.  My joy is your strength.”  Today’s scripture points us to a place of victory when we feel we are going nowhere in the Lord.  But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.  We might say during these times of lifelessness, no action, no wind in our sails: Search me, Father God?  Show me where I have wandered from your paths.  I believe in your grace.  I still believe you are my Creator.  I believe you possess eternal life and raise the dead.  Why am I here with no direction in my life, no fire in my spirit?  These are often our questions when we are in the midst of a doldrum: when the Bible becomes just words to us, does not inspire us, when church attendance and worship seem a perfunctory activity, when the encouragement of our friends falls to the ground.  But the answer is always Jesus.  We must fall at his feet, no matter how we feel, for we are his servants.  We must arise in the morning with praise to him and seek his will and his direction.  That is what Paul did after he was stoned, after the people thought he was dead.  He got up and went back into the city where the people hated him and rejoiced in God at his stoning. This is our prayer: "Where have I sinned, Lord?  Where have I gone astray?  Bring me home to a safe harbor in you.”  We must seek the wind for our sails, the blessed Holy Spirit.  The grace of God will increase in our lives when we feel the most weak.  For his strength is made perfect in weakness.  When we seem unable to hold onto a strong faith, Jesus Christ fills the gap, and He gives us more grace when the burdens grow greater.  

The Israelites found themselves in the doldrums when they failed to get up and enter the Promised Land.  Even though many miracles had been performed before their eyes, they could not believe that God could conquer the people who possessed the land God said was theirs.  They saw themselves as weak in the face of the giants and fortified cities.  They counted their own numbers and knew there were more forces in the inhabited land than in their own midst.  They looked with human eyes, not eyes of faith.  How could they accomplish the task that God had assigned to them?  They failed to enter into the Promised Land at that time.  Circumstances and their knowledge overwhelmed their faith.  The wind went out of their sails, and they sat listlessly unable to move forward.  Dear friends, our lives are often difficult in this world.  We do not always understand what God is doing with us.  But where unbelief or sin abounds, grace abounds more.  When Paul was left for dead, he went back to the city and then went to Derbe where he had a profitable ministry.  He did not say, “This ministry work is too much for me.  Why has God forsaken me?”  You too will have a profitable ministry if you go back to speak truth into other people’s lives with the eternal story of God’s grace and mercy.  You are temples of the living God.  People in the Bible times went to the temple to find mercy and grace.  Give that mercy and grace from your temple.  If so, the wind will pick up in your sails.  You will once again find the Bible alive; your fellowship with other Christians will inspire you.  Your voice in worship will sound forth loud and clear.  Knowing that you are the temple of God is important.  Through faith in Jesus Christ, you continuously inherit the grace of God and function as a dynamic force in other people’s existence.  They will know God because you know God and shine in a dark world for him.  Others will want to leave this lethargic existence as they see your vibrant walk with God.  They will want what you have!  The law pointed to the myriad of sins of the flesh, but faith in God reveals that his grace and mercy are efficacious for all people.  We know we have a Savior who is Christ the Lord!  Therefore he (Jesus) is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.  (Hebrews 7:25)   

Romans 5:15-17 God's Gift!

Romans 5:15-17  But the gift is not like the trespass.  For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!  Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.  For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

Why is the gift of righteousness necessary for all men?  What are we talking about when we say people need to be saved?  Saved from what?  Why did the apostles and the early church give their lives for this message?  What was the light that came into the world?  We so often talk rather cavalierly about salvation, about people’s sins, about righteousness, about a need to please God.  We believe the world sometimes looks at all our talk and all our expressions about Christianity as if we are just people who are religious, a people like those from all other religions with a philosophy of how to live life, how to get along with each other, and how to have a meaningful life, even one of peace and happiness.  But Christianity for the nascent church was not what we sometimes think of as our faith.  The core of the Good News is not about treating people better or loving people more.  It is about the message of salvation from sin and the gift eternal life.  Those who live IN CHRIST because of their faith in Christ will have eternal life with the God of creation.  What excited the disciples and the early church the most was not the miracles, not the speaking in tongues, but the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.  Concerning the resurrection, Paul wrote, For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.  Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.  If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  (I Corinthians 15:16-19)  If Jesus did not rise from the grave, we who confess Christianity would be miserable people expressing a lie, living a lie.  No matter how much our lives turned towards love, peace, and happiness, without the fact of the resurrection, we still would be living these hopeless finite lives.  Without the resurrection, the final result of our biological existence would be death, nothingness.  But we are not like those who are hopeless, lost in the space of time; no, we are timeless because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Paul told the Thessalonians that we are not like those who have no hope because we believe in a risen Lord.  We have passed from death unto life, from a state of sin that always brings corruption and death, to a place of perfectness IN CHRIST where eternal life exists.  Today’s scripture says we have a gift of righteousness bestowed upon us.  This gift came not because of our efforts, but by the Great Gift Giver, Jesus Christ.  He paid the way for our salvation through his shed blood.  God has come into our lives to parent us, to make us his own forevermore.  

When Adam sinned, he broke the only commandment given to him.  One commandment, one decision of rebellion.  Otherwise, Adam was one hundred percent wrong.  God is perfect, exact, holy.  He does not have even a shadow of imperfection within him.  Everything that is revolves around him in an orderly and precise manner.  Every universe, every galaxy, each and every star, life itself reveals his perfection, exactness, holiness.  Adam came into existence to reveal the total image of God.  He was made in God’s image to fellowship with the perfect One.  BUT ADAM FAILED COMPLETELY!  And through his absolute failure came sin and death to the many who followed Adam.  Sin brings death, finiteness: many died by the trespass of the one man.  Sin, hidden in the DNA of man manifests itself in countless ways, even in the madness of killing others.  Cain slew Abel, the beginning of blood being spilt because of Adam’s imperfection.  Mankind no longer reveals the perfection or holiness of the ETERNAL ONE.  A dark song comes into man’s existence, a song of self, not a song to glorify the Eternal God, the Creator, the Life Giver.  Trespasses, waywardness, lust, ill-willed desires become an integral part of the human condition.  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me the does it.  (Romans 7:18-20)  As Paul explains, sin corrupted Adam.  Still powerful?  Yes!  Creative?  Yes!  Can the Adam nature do good?  Yes!  Can he love?  Yes!  But is he God-like?  No, for he has been contaminated.  He will face death.  God does not face death; nor does he do anything that is not perfect.  Even his plan of salvation seems to be inexact, imperfect from the beginning:  Adam’s sin, Noah’s ark, the Israelites inability to keep the Promised Land, the church’s weakness.  Yet all of the failures of God’s creation are within his plan, each one necessary to bring adopted children into the family of God.  But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law.  (Galatians 4:4)  Because He sent his Son, we can be born again through unadulterated faith in Jesus Christ and his works.  No other path to God is available.  When things do not work out, even when we believe God’s plans are not working out the way we desire, we know God and his plan for our adoption are perfect.  The angels could not conceive of such a plan, but the plan originated with God from the very beginning, and it is flawless, beyond our imaginations.  Faith is a mystery of God, but it is his gift to us and as we trust in him, we are saved.

We who are alive IN CHRIST have received God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness.  Christ has placed us in this position of perfection.  His blood has redeemed us; his sacrifice has paid for our sins.  The Bible says as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.  (Psalm 103:12)  We are no longer accountable for our sinful lives, for Jesus took our place, bore our sins.  Sin will not enter into eternity.  Adam was dismissed from the eternal Garden because of sin.  We, too, would be dismissed from eternity with God because of our transgressions.  Consequently, we need a Savior, a Strong One, an Eternal One, who sits at the right hand of God, advocating for us.  Of course, that one is the Son of God: Jesus Christ.  You who belong to Jesus Christ, sing the song of the redeemed.  Get rid of the dark songs in your lives.  They will not lead to happiness or correctness; they will lead only to self-willed paths.  There is no eternity in the songs of finiteness.  Lift your eyes to heaven and sing the songs of mercy and love, redemption and peace with God.  The Holy Spirit within you desires for you to sing those songs.  He has given you the Word of God to inspire you.  Mom likes to get up in the morning and sing, “Let the first song I sing today be praise to you.  Let the melody linger all day long.”  Dad sings throughout the day, new songs from his heart as he thinks on the Lord.  God has given us all fellowship within the body of Christ to energize us to sing songs in unison.  We gather together often to strengthen our inner souls to sing the songs of God.  We ARE PERFECT because HE IS PERFECT.  Our salvation, eternity with God, brings rejoicing.  The apostles and the early church, many who had even seen Jesus, faced persecution and hardship for their belief that eternal life comes from the resurrected One.  Paul was chased from the cities of Lystra, Iconium and Antioch by angry mobs.  In Lystra, they stoned him to the point they thought he was dead.  His seemingly lifeless body must have banged against the rocks as they dragged him out of the city over the dusty paths.  No groans emitted, validating to the mob that he was dead.  But as the believers gathered around him, he got up and went back into the town of Lystra.  The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.  (Acts 14:20)  Paul proceeded to Derbe and had a successful time of ministry there.  Before he left the area of these towns, he went back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, towns that rejected his ministry in such a way they wanted to kill him.  He went back to encourage the believers in those places, to tell them they must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.  We who are alive IN CHRIST might suffer trials, but our faith is not in the good or bad experiences of our lives: our faith is in the one man, Jesus Christ!  He is the Rock of our salvation, the Cornerstone.  In Christ alone lies eternal life.  You are justified and righteous in Jesus!     

Romans 5:12-14 Seek the Greenwood!

Romans 5:12-14  Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned—To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law.  Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.  

Death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command.  Did these people not do evil if they broke no prescribed commands of God?  No, in fact, in the time of Noah, we see God repenting that He made mankind.  The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.  So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth  the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”  (Genesis 6:5-7)  The nature of man in those times and in our time inclined towards violating God’s nature of goodness and righteousness.  But since God had not given his commands, telling humans what was right and wrong, sin was not charged against anyone’s account.  They were following their natural endemic nature that could not be separated from their Adamic inclinations.  If you are “blue” in nature, how can you be condemned for being "blue."  But, we find that Adam’s seed within them brought chaos and destruction into the world.  Consequently, God decided to get rid of mankind, regardless of its “color,” for He regretted his creation.  Only Noah found favor with the Lord.  Even though Noah was made up of the same DNA, God desired to give him a chance.  He was a man of faith who believed in God, wanting to please the creator of all things.  Was Noah different from all the other people who were destroyed?  No, after the flood recedes, God says: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though EVERY INCLINATION of the human heart is evil from childhood.  And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.”  (Genesis 8:21)   In Noah’s salvation from the flood, we see the nascent plan of God: to save mankind from the ravages of Adam’s nature.  God, who cannot tolerate aberration, who is the exact God, the perfect God, who places everything in order, had a plan to save a wayward people.  Nature is exact.  We have the exact amount of oxygen in the air for all species to exist.  God placed the earth the exact distance from the sun so that we can have life on this planet.  God is the exact Creator, but mankind is not exact.  By not being exact or perfect, mankind brings destruction, self-interest, lust, and corruption into the realm of God’s creation.  Sin must be dealt with, order must be restored.  When God says, never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done, He is at the portal of his salvation plan for mankind.  Not only will He make them as He is, but He will bring them, the disorderly ones, into his own household as adopted brothers and sisters to his Only Begotten Son: Jesus Christ.

Noah was a man of faith.  Faith in God is the genesis of a new life, a new creation.  Jesus exclaimed, “You must be born again.”  Before faith could be realized in its fullest extent, the written law had to come into existence.  The law denotes or measures mankind’s waywardness, points out how far mankind falls from God’s nature of perfection.  As Paul so clearly indicates, 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.”  (Romans 7:7)  Without the law pointing out our true nature, we exist with a self-worth that is not accurate when we are measured up with God: his holiness, his exact nature of goodness.  We have no avenue to God’s perfection unless we fully understand our need of a Savior, and that comes from unadulterated faith in his works and not our own.  As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, we are saved by grace through faith and not by our works that we might boast.  To the Galatians, he said the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.  Paul indicates further in Romans 7 that the law literally puts him to death, or points out his hopelessness of pleasing God or being like God.  The written law that was given in Moses’ time brought condemnation, not release from sin.  The law delineated sin and brought each member of the human race into judgment.  The problem with the law is that it does not just reveal mankind as “blue,” it reveals that we are the wrong color in reference to God’s holiness and perfection.  We know God is good and his law is good, but we are not.  We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.  (Romans 7:14)  We realize we cannot attain to that goodness by our own efforts, for the law constantly points out our waywardness, either in our actions or in our spirits.  If reflective, we are constantly living in condemnation, evaluating our lives as somewhat good but not totally good, as God is.  Without complete holiness we are enemies of God, for any blot or tittle of waywardness in our lives will be our judge as if we violated everything that is good.  For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.  For he who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.”  If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a lawbreaker.  (James 2:10-11) 

Today’s verses confirm that death reigned in the human condition before the law was present in written form.  Death reigned because man’s DNA was of Adam, the first man.  He broke the only commandment God gave him, not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge.  One commandment, one violation.  In other words, one could say to break God’s one command meant complete rebellion.  He did not have many commandments to break.  If so, he might have broken a few of them, but obeyed others, so the final result would not have been so bad.  But Adam had only one commandment, and he broke that one.  God took Adam’s action seriously, for He had given Adam great freedom in the Garden except for the one instruction, one command.  Because of Adam’s rebellious nature, his unwillingness to rest in God’s creation, known as the sabbath rest, he was driven out of the Garden.  God placed him in a finite state, where death would reign, where sin now existed.  We who are alive in Christ, do not have death reigning in our lives.  We have the nature of Jesus Christ in our lives through the blessed Holy Spirit dwelling in us.  Paul told the Romans that through Christ’s death, we were set free from sin.  He went on to say, Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.  (Romans 6:8)   At the end of life’s journey, our biological flesh will die because our bodies are not eternal.  Our minds and attitudes are not eternal, but the Spirit of God is eternal, and He makes us alive forevermore.  Our thought processes might degenerate.  Our bodies will fail, but God is the greenwood in each of us, restoring us to himself by his eternal Spirit, dwelling in us by faith in the One who pleases him: Jesus Christ.  We are not alone, existing in a finite state; no, we have an eternal living Spirit within us.  We are known by God as new creatures.  Our home is with him.  He knows us by name.  Sin entered this world by one man: Adam.  But we are now under the authority and likeness of the new Man: Jesus Christ.  Rejoice in Christ’s work, for we are no longer slaves to sin.  Do not let the evil one bring you into condemnation.  When you fail, look to Jesus Christ your Savior.  Consider the old man dead, look to the living.  Do not concentrate on your sins, but concentrate on the work of God in you, Jesus Christ the hope of your salvation.  He alone is worthy to please God.  Hide IN HIM and in his goodness, not yours.  For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.  (Colossians 3:3-4) 

Romans 5: 6-11 Friends with God!

Romans 5: 6-11 When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

Adam and Eve were friends of God.  Christ has come to restore our friendship, our communications with God.  God’s plan was to save that which was lost, a wayward people who rejected him as their Creator.  Although we were a people born in his image, outside of Christ, we reflected death, pain, devastation.  Created to show our God, after the fall we lived finite lives, alone in the universe of time, unable to find a place of rest, peace.  Paul describes this condition: When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.  When knowledge of how to better ourselves, when wisdom of how to avoid the devastating nature of our species runs out as we kill and maim countless millions of people for our gain; God is there with a redemption answer.  He sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die and rise again in victory over death and the grave.  Every person in the human race requires an answer for our sinful nature.  We all need to place our faith in One who is perfect, without the devastating nature of man, One who can create new creatures out of those who are lost in despair.  But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.  The Good News is that we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ.  The sprinkling of his blood on our unregenerate lives brings forgiveness, not judgment.  Paul understood this gift of life when he wrote to his spiritual son, Timothy, Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.  (1 Timothy 1:15)  Jesus’ life was a substitute for our lives; his death was our death; and praise God, his resurrection was our resurrection.  Because He is eternal, we also are and will be eternal.  The law supposedly brought righteousness, or perfection, but it could not change hearts. God through Christ and the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit has made us perfect through his once and forever sacrifice.  If we were bound to the law, we would be under constant condemnation, for we would have to be perfect not only in our activities but in our spirits as well, but IN CHRIST we have now come into the position of the sabbath, complete rest in Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath.  Those who are IN HIM experience the sabbath, for we no longer have to strive to be at peace with God.  We are at peace in Christ as we follow the Spirit, knowing, The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.  (Hebrews 1:3)

In heaven, eternally, we will have peace with God.  We will be perfect because God is perfect.  Which one of us can imagine fully such a situation?  Well, God has paid a high price for that to happen.  Jesus, the Christ, the Perfect One, the Lamb of God has fulfilled the plan of God.  When we were lost and hopeless, enemies of God, God’s plan was to make us right in his sight through the blood of Jesus Christ.  Through faith in God’s plan: Jesus Christ’s life and death, we are saved from the damnation that sin brings to every soul.  We are saved from God’s condemnation.  Rejoice dear friends in Christ.  So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.  We are no longer just friends of God, we are in his intimate family.   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 not just to share in the suffering of the flesh, for all of creation groans to be delivered in this day and age from the contamination of sin.  We are also to share in the great joy we have by believing in the works of God by faith.  He has come to indwell each of us, so that we might know his fellowship as we walk this earth.  We are not alone; we are not caught in the unknowable; for we have knowledge of the work of Jesus Christ.  Consequently, we can put our whole faith and energy into serving the living God.  If we are truly earnest in serving God as was Cornelius and his household, God will come to us in the form of his Holy Spirit, to abide with us forever.  The Bible says Cornelius was a righteous and God-fearing man, and the angel who came to him said, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”  (Acts 10:4)  We put our whole hearts and minds into knowing Christ as our Savior because we are the children of God and we have received the Spirit of God and we do call out, “Abba, Father."

As with Abraham, we have not yet set one foot in the Promised Land: heaven.  We have the promise of heaven, we have the promise of God making us his own people, but we have not experienced the expected reality of that fact in this sinful world.  People of the world do not know that you are a special person, that God has placed his nature in you through your faith in the Spirit’s work.  We pray for you as Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus:  I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  (Ephesians 3:16-19)  Someday the full reality of God’s plan will be revealed to us.  We will come to a place of joy — where the firstborn of the flesh, Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, fills the heavens with his glory, where countless angels abide.  We will be in the place where God’s own adopted family abides, bought by the blood of the Lamb, with a special name given by God, as unique as our fingerprints.  To the one who is victorious, I will give some of the hidden manna.  I will also give that person a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to the one who receives it.  (Revelation 2:17)  Every human who dies: every soldier who falls on the battlefield who cries out God’s name in reverence; every abused, hurting, human who passes from this world, acknowledging God the Creator from the heart will see him.  “Oh, God save me,” is all that is required.  God is the judge of all things.  He judges the quick and the dead.  We who have been made perfect will someday occupy heaven in the presence of God as his victorious children.  His penetrating eyes will search our souls, and He will know because of the work of the PERFECT ONE, we belong to him.  The plan of God revealed in the Bible from the beginning to the end is a marvelous one: a plan of redemption, eternal life.  Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness.  Believe God dear friends, not by sight but by faith.  His plan is for you to step into eternity with HIM.  When Mom was in the midst of apologizing to our son, Doug, when he was a very young boy, he stopped her, saying, “That’s okay, Mama.  Everybody makes mistakes.  That’s why we all need Jesus.”  He was absolutely right.  We all need Jesus.  Seek him today while He can be found.