Year 2, Day 35: Romans 12

Metamorphosis

Romans 12 begins with an incredible bang.  Romans 12:2 is a great verse: “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind…”  But even before this verse we have another great quote: “present your bodies as a living sacrifice … this is your spiritual act of worship.”  Let’s take these two verses and bring them together as Paul does in this chapter.

Do not be conformed to the world.  Be transformed by the renewal of your mind.  These are tough pieces of advice, especially when I put them in conjunction with a book that I just finished reading: Crazy Love by Francis Chan.  In that book, Francis Chan asks how many of our lives would look any different if Jesus wasn’t real.  In fact, he goes on to ask an even more challenging question.  If we were told that we were going to go to heaven and all of our loved ones, all of our loved pets, and all of our memories would be in heaven but Jesus would not be in heaven – would heaven still be where we wanted to go?  If so, what does that say about what priority we place on Jesus?

These questions are very challenging, but they point us to what Paul is talking about here in Romans 12.  Is Christ something we transform our life into, or is Christ someone that we expect to conform to our life?  Another way of asking this question is this: do we do the things in our life because Christ is in our life or do we simply do the same things we would do without Christ just in a slightly different way because we think we have Christ?

Let’s be very clear here about what Paul is saying.  Paul doesn’t say conform your life to the world.  He doesn’t say “do the same stuff as the rest of the world, just do it with a Christian bent.”  No, Paul says the opposite.  Do not be conformed to the world.  Instead be transformed.  The Greek word that is used for “transformed” is literally metamorphomai (μεταμορφόομαι).  The word that is our root word for metamorphosis is exactly what Paul says we should be in Christ.

Metamorphosis as True Worship

The cool thing is that this is our spiritual act of worship.  So many of us think that worship is one of those things we do once or twice a week.  {Ironically enough, we also think that prayer is something we do only when we say something like “Heavenly Father,” at the beginning.}  Paul is telling us that when we sacrifice our life and we become what God wants – that is our spiritual act of worship.  Worship is not coming to a preset place and going through some preset routine.  Worship is leaving our old life behind as we transform our life and pursue God.

Nothing says “I love you, God,” like letting Him change who we are.  Nothing says “I don’t care about you, God,” like saying we love Him and not being interested at all in transforming who we are.  Want to truly worship God?  Stop being a “Christianized version” of the person that you really want to be in your sinful heart and instead start being the person whom God sees when He looks at you.

Giftedness

Paul then gives us a pretty straightforward section about the fact that God’s followers have different gifts.  This makes sense.  Just like there is no one “true” method of worshipping Him, there is no one “true” way to be a Christian.  The goal is not to become a carbon copy of a spiritual person in your life; the goal is to discern the person that God wants you to be and go out and do it. 

What Does a Christian Look Like, Then?

Paul finishes the chapter by giving us a list of Christian traits.  If you go through this list, one thing that you will notice is that most of the things on the list are responses that are not natural to human nature.

• Be patient in tribulation
• Contribute to the needs of the saints
• Seek to show hospitality
• Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them
• Live in harmony with one another
• Do not be haughty
• Associate with the lowly
• Never be wise in your own sight
• Repay no one evil for evil
• Live peaceably with all
• Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God
• If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink
• Overcome evil with good.

You see, this comes right back to where we began.  God doesn’t want us to conform Him to our lives.  God doesn’t want us to live like the world but with a “Christian twist.”  No, He wants us to live like He wants us to live.  Bless those who persecute you.  Live in harmony.  Associate with the lowly.  Never be wise in your own sight.  Don’t repay the evil.  Take care of your enemies.  The list goes on.

What does God want for us?  He wants the only thing that is good for us: Him and a relationship with Him.  The question left for us to answer then, is this: how interested are we in pursuing God?  Are we interested in leaving our life behind and pursuing the life God wants us to live?  Or are we too interested in our own life and trying to “Christianize it” as much as possible?

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Year 2, Day 34: Romans 11

Remnant

Romans 11 is one of my favorite chapters in the book of Romans because there is such a common bond between Paul’s experience and my own.  For me, Romans 11 is one of those chapters that I read and sit back and say, “Solomon was right when he said that there is nothing new under the sun.”  Let’s face it, as Paul reminds us in this chapter, Elijah faced a lukewarm Hebrew nation and was reminded by God about the idea of a remnant.  Paul was faced by a lukewarm Hebrew people and was reminded about a remnant.  Much of American Christianity today is lukewarm, and I think it is time we talk about this concept of a remnant.

Here’s a Greek understanding of the word “remnant” used by Paul: a relatively small part which continues to exist.  By its very definition, a remnant is small.  It clearly isn’t the majority, and when we typically think of the word “small” we don’t think of something that is even remotely close to being called the majority.  God reminds Elijah to look for a remnant of faith – and by definition it will be a small group of people {Even 7,000 is small compared to the whole nation of Israel at the time of Elijah}.  Paul reminds us that in his time he is aware that the people of faith are a remnant – a small percentage of the total number of Hebrew and Gentile people.  So to I think we can say that today in the American Church we need to look for the remnant and realize that it will be a small portion of those who “claim Christianity.”  {Not that we are to judge one another’s salvation, of course.}

As I wrote this last paragraph, I was really reminded about another passage in the Bible.  It is a passage that I have started calling the “Block Party” passage.  I call it the Block Party passage because if you have a block party, everyone wants to be involved – whether the block party is really good for us or not.  In other words, crowds just suck people in without even thinking about it.  I’m talking about Matthew 7:13-14. 

There Jesus tells us to enter by the narrow gate, for wide is the gate that leads to destruction and many will find it.  But narrow is the gate that leads to life and few will find it.  Jesus Himself speaks about the faithful in terms of contrasting words: few versus many.  It seems pretty clear that this is just a paradigm that truly spiritual people should accept.  Few.  Remnant.  Small percentage.

Now, I certainly don’t mean to depress anyone here.  Even one person who finds a relationship with their God and Creator is worth the effort.  It isn’t about numbers at all!  In fact, when Jesus started to get a crowd of people listening to Him he started speaking in parables in order to make sure that the only people who would come back and search for the deeper meaning were the people who were there to genuinely find God and devote their life to Him.  So it isn’t at all about numbers; it is all about genuine faith.

It is about genuine expectations.  It is about a realistic analysis of the world around us.  Shoot, it’s even especially about a realistic analysis of ourselves first and foremost.  God knows that out of His chosen people only a remnant will follow Him.  Jesus knows that out of the masses only a remnant will follow Him.  Paul can see that the same is true.  So we should have the same realistic understanding.  We need to teach what it means to be a part of the remnant.  For that is where the core of faith exists.

Talking to The Gentiles Among Us

Paul then speaks to the Gentiles and makes a very assertive point that I need to hear, especially coming off of the last few paragraphs that I wrote.  We must be quick to not speak about “remnant theology” in an arrogant way.  We must not look down upon those going into the wide gate, on the wide path, or outside of the remnant.  We cannot look down upon them because it is only by the grace of God that we are where we are!  Had God not first loved us, all of us would be on the wide path and going through the wide gate – and quite deservedly so. 

When we look down upon the people who have rejected Christ and chosen the wide path/gate of the world, we begin to think that we are better.  That, my friends, is our old arch-nemesis “works-based theology” rearing its ugly head.  We are no better than the people who have rejected Christ.  The only difference is that we have received the grace of God through Jesus Christ and it is Christ that makes all the difference, not us.

Furthermore, what will be gained by looking down upon those who are not a part of the remnant?  Will they be likely to become a part of the remnant because we look down upon them?  No!  Rather, it is through love that people shall be won to Christ.  We are in Christ because of God’s love.  Only through God’s love will others be won to Christ.

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Year 2, Day 33: Romans 10

Why Do Some Reject Christ?

In Romans 10, Paul moves from talking about the fact that some people (in his case, the traditional Jews) reject Christ and now he talks about why they reject Christ.  There is a lot of meat that we can learn in this passage about why people reject Christ.  Specifically, there is a lot of meat we can learn about why some people who even call themselves Christians have really rejected Christ.  This is a great chapter to study and apply to the world around us.

One of the first reasons that Paul gives to us is in the opening verses of this chapter.  The Jews who rejected Christ didn’t even realize that they had a need to be saved!  The Jews who rejected Jesus thought they were covered by the Law and that their own righteous following of the Law had saved them.  Therefore they weren’t looking for a spiritual savior but rather a political Messiah!  They didn’t see the need for Jesus Christ as a savior from sin; they saw the need for someone to overthrow the Roman government.

Oh boy does this speak to the church and the world today.  How many people – even those who claim to be in a relationship with Christ! – live their lives as though they are perfectly fine?  How many Christians confess Christ but haven’t changed a thing about their life?  In doing so, is not the message that is being sent a message of self-righteousness?  If a person comes to Christ and doesn’t feel the need to change who they are to their very core, are they not saying to God that they think their core is just fine the way it is?  Essentially, what they are saying is that “I’m okay the way I am, what I need is someone to whom I can pray when I need something to happen that is bigger than myself.”

No, this is not what Christianity is about!  I’m not okay at my core.  You’re not okay in your core, either.  God has called us to change.  God has called us to crucify ourselves with Christ so that it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us.  (See Galatians 2:19-20)  If Paul genuinely thought we were okay in our core beings, I don’t think he would have used the imagery of crucifixion when it comes to how we are to think of ourselves!

The second reason that Paul gives for the Jews rejecting Jesus is because they misunderstood (or misused) the Law, and it is almost inherently tied to the first thought above.  The Law was supposed to illustrate for them their need for a spiritual savior.  Instead they thought that the Law was their savior.  They thought by doing the Law they would be saved.

This reason is also big among Christianity.  We make mistakes all the time we about what the Bible is telling us about our relationship with God.  I’ll give you an example.  Ever hear about this thing called cheap grace?  Cheap grace is grace that costs us nothing.  Cheap grace is grace that is given to somebody simply because “God loves them” {which He does} but it asks nothing in return.  Cheap grace is grace that is offered without asking for repentance or confession.  Cheap grace is that which is offered while not asking for a person to change their life and hand control of their life over to God.  Christians are just as guilty of misunderstanding (or misusing) God’s Word and creating false pretenses for salvation as those Jews who reject Jesus.

The Need For Quality Preaching

So where does Paul end this chapter?  When faced with a people who are either blind to their need for Christ or misusing their understanding for Christ there is only one solution: preach truth.  We cannot become frustrated – although it is easy to do.  We cannot become distracted – and certainly that is easy to do.  When faced with a world that denies the need of Christ or misunderstands Christ in their life the only solution is to talk about it and hope that God’s Word takes root.

This is perhaps the most frustrating dynamic for a person who genuinely is in Christ and who genuinely has the Holy Spirit within them.  The frustration comes because as much as we love God, we want others to love God with us.  As much as God is changing our life, we want others to experience that change.  As much as we have given up control and watched as God has taken over control, we want others to know that feeling. 

But we know reality: Not all will listen. 

Not all will accept. 

Not all will submit.

People will turn their back on God because they feel that what God demands is too much.  Paul’s use of Isaiah 65:2 at the end of this chapter is quite appropriate.  All day long God holds out his hands to a rebellious people who walk in ways that are not good and who follow their own devices.  But as frustrated as we may become, we must remember that God has been dealing with this dynamic of humanity since the fall of mankind.  God continues to persist – thanks be to God!  So we also should not allow the frustration to overcome us but continue to preach for the sake of those who actually do desire to listen.

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Year 2, Day 32: Romans 9

Not All Who Claim Abraham are Actually Israel

Paul gives a really tough analogy here in Romans 9 – an analogy that I don’t think many of us want to hear.  Paul begins by telling us that he wishes he were cut off for the sake of his kin.  This tells us that he believes part of his Hebrew kin are not included in the promise of salvation.  Of course, Paul goes on a few verses later and makes that claim official when he says in v.6-7, “For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring.”  He then follows up that verse by saying “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.”

Paul then uses a great example to illustrate that God does not select people based on the physical attributes or what the world asserts as important.  Esau was born first, but Esau was rejected by God in favor of Jacob because God could judge what was inside.  Paul’s point in this statement is that a people who have the appearance of keeping the Law but who can also find themselves rejecting the Messiah have a good outward appearance but they are rejected based upon what lies in the heart.  God is not fooled by a great outward appearance.  Either one humbles oneself to Christ or one doesn’t.

This is the tough message that I don’t think many of us really want to hear.  But here it is.  Here is truth.  If God can give Israel so many opportunities and lavish upon them so many blessings and still reject those among Israel who reject Christ, why then should it be any different upon us Gentiles?  Furthermore – and be prepared for this to hurt – why should those in Christ’s Church who have the outward appearance of being faithful but who do not have the inward obedience – inward slavery, even! – have it any differently?  No, friends.  There is one simple qualification: am I justified by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ while obediently responding to His will? 

Or do I simply seek to serve my own will while giving lip service to God?  Do I accept Christ in name only or do I make God’s agenda my own while forsaking my own selfish desires?  Am I really Christ’s, or do I make Him mine when it is convenient?

Now, I certainly don’t mean to make people doubt unnecessarily so.  Paul has asserted that those who have the Holy Spirit within them belong to Christ.  That is still absolutely true.  If you have the Holy Spirit within you then you are in Christ.  Be confident in your salvation because God lives in you.  But at the same time I do wish to be blunt.  If the Holy Spirit is not within you, do not think that God is fooled by an outward appearance.

I can go to church every Sunday and not be in Christ.  I can quote scripture and not be in Christ.  {After all, doesn’t Satan Himself quote scripture when tempting Jesus in the wilderness?}  I can sing praise songs and lift my hands in the air and not be in Christ.  It is God’s Holy Spirit within me and my obedient response that guarantees that I am in Christ.  If God did not accept the outward appearance of His own chosen people, why would He ever accept the outward appearance of any of us?

All of That is True, and God is Still Righteous

Amidst all of this we must certainly not dare to think that God is unjust.  God has given salvation to all who desire to receive it.  God has not given it to some and given others no hope of receiving it!  Any who desire to humble themselves before God can and will receive Christ and receive His Holy Spirit.  God is never unjust in punishing those who refuse His gift and who continue to wallow in their unrepentant sinful behavior.

How Can the Gentiles Be Blessed?

This brings us to the end of the chapter.  How is it that salvation and grace has come to a people who did not pursue God’s Law while so many who pursue God’s Law find themselves perishing?  Is this some ironic twist of fate?  The answer to the question lies in taking another perspective on the question.  The proper question to ask is who has pursued God by faith and who has pursued God by works of their own righteousness? 

The Gentiles, who have no hope of following the Law, are in the same boat as the Jews who have the Law.  Any Gentile or Jew who pursues God by faith will find Christ.  Any Jew or Gentile who pursues God by faith will come to terms with their inability to attain the Law and they will come to terms with their need for a Messiah.  They will come to terms with why it is that they must come humbly before their God with a contrite heart.  By faith we understand that we cannot save ourselves and we see we need a Messiah – we need Jesus.  Jew or Gentile, by faith we understand that we need Jesus.

But any Jew or Gentile that pursues God through their own works only ends up attaining self-righteousness.  Any Jew or Gentile that comes to God and says, “Look at how good I have been,” believes the lie that they have told themselves.  Nobody is righteous on their own, especially those who actually know the Law.  Regardless of heritage, a person who approaches God under the guise of their own righteousness has missed the point of faith, the point of grace, and therefore has missed Jesus Christ Himself.

God is just when we understand that His judgment is not based on who has access to the Law but rather based on who responds to God free gift of grace out of faith.  From that perspective, the whole world is on an even playing field.  Respond to God out of faith, your life may depend on it!

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Year 2, Day 31: Romans 8

Neither Universal Salvation Nor Works Righteousness

Today as I began to read Romans 8 my mind went down a path against universal salvation.  So I’m going to write a little bit here against the concept of universal salvation and then move on.  Of course, the natural tendency when wrestling against universal salvation is to end up in works-based salvation.  I’ll try to avoid that pitfall as well.  So let’s begin with two great verses that Paul gives us in this chapter:

• Romans 8:4 says “in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
• Romans 8:9 says “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.”

In Romans 8:4 we have a very clear perspective that the righteous requirement of the Law is fulfilled in those who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.  In Romans 8:9 we hear that anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ (Holy Spirit) within him does not belong in Christ.  Clearly these passages lift up the idea that while God desires all of humanity to be saved in Christ, not all humanity will be saved.  There are those who do not walk according to the Spirit; and there is no guarantee that the righteous requirement of the Law will be fulfilled in them.  There are those who do not have the Spirit of Christ in them; and Paul is quite clear that those do not belong to Christ. 

We as Christians need to be blunt and honest in our teaching that there is no such thing as universal salvation.  Yes, God has extended the gift of salvation to all people, but not all people will receive the gift and certainly not all people will live according to the Spirit.

However, we must also be careful to not become focused on our works as the reason for our salvation.  Our works are nothing more than the proof of the faith that dwells inside of us.  James 2:22 tells us that faith is completed by works.  In other words, works are the proper response to faith.  We cannot be saved by our works because we can only do God’s will because we are saved!  Thus, it is not our works which save us, but our works which are evidence of the salvation that we have already received through Christ.  Works are not the reason for salvation, but rather the evidence of it.

Conclusions about Salvation

Therefore, we can come to a conclusion as we read through this chapter.  Not all will be saved, but all who are in Christ – who have the Spirit of Christ within them – will be saved.  And we can know that we have the Spirit of Christ within us when we are God’s slaves, humbly responding to Christ’s Spirit in word and deed.  Finally, we may live in confidence of the resurrection since the same Spirit that dwelled in the resurrected Christ now dwells in us.

Tying Faith and the Holy Spirit Together

Faith is the response to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  As Paul says here in chapter 8, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit comes when a person belongs to Christ.  A person belongs to Christ when that person has become a slave to God: humbly submitted to God with a contrite heart.  Do you hear the emphasis on submission in Romans 8:7?  Submission to God is the effect of living in the Spirit.

What Then Shall We Say?

We end this chapter with Paul’s looking back to suffering as seen from the perspective of the hope of eternal life.  Paul makes a few bold statements that are easy to say but hard to embody.  Paul tells us that the sufferings of this present day are simply not worth comparing to the coming glory.  And of course that is true.  However, that also doesn’t mean that our present sufferings don’t cause us pain. 

But this is the next step in the pursuit of God.  God did not spare His own Son.  Jesus endured the pain of rejection and especially the pain of the cross because He was able to focus on the coming glory.  That doesn’t mean the pain was meaningless, but Jesus put it in the proper context.  So it is with us who follow Christ and who have Christ’s Spirit.  We will have pain.  We will face rejection.  We may even find abuse.  But in the context of eternal salvation in the glory of God, it is temporary pain.  It is capable of being endured for the sake of God.

After all, who can separate us from the love of God?  Once God’s Spirit genuinely dwells within us, who can take it away?  Once God is genuinely living within us, once we have genuinely crucified ourselves with Christ, and once we have been empowered by the Holy Spirit – who will be able to remove to promise of future glory?  That is the life sustaining hope right there.  The pain and worry of this world is temporary when compared to the experience of the eternal glory of God that is to come.  Stay the course.  Endure for the sake of God.  Live confidently in the hope that God can save.

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Year 2, Day 30: Romans 7

Recapping

Paul gives us an argument here in Romans 7 that is often misunderstood.  The reason that it is often misunderstood is because the theology we glean from the prior chapters is often not tight.  In order to truly get what Paul is saying in this chapter, we must fully grasp the argument that Paul has established before.  So let’s recap.

Under Christ, we are slaves {not even servants!} to God.  In Christ, we are crucified with Christ to life and death.  We are given a new life and a new agenda.  We are no longer governed by the ways of this world and should no longer be governed by the desires of this world.  As God’s slaves, we are slaves to righteousness and should pursue that which righteousness pursues.

What Is the Purpose of the Law?

Having very loosely recapped the past chapter or two, we are now ready for what Paul says in chapter 7.  Paul says we are free from the law.  Now, this does not mean that we can toss the Hebrew Scriptures.  Certainly not!  If nothing else, the fact that nearly every book in our New Testament has at least one quotation from the Hebrew Scriptures tells us that Paul is not telling us that the followers of Jesus Christ can ignore the Hebrew Scriptures.  In fact, Jesus Christ Himself tells us that he came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it.  So Paul is certainly not telling us that we can ignore the Hebrew Scriptures.

Rather, what Paul is saying is that if we are doing righteousness then the law has no affect on us.  See, the Law’s primary focus was to be a mirror to us as Christians and point out our sinful nature.  Having seen our sinful nature, the Law then points us to Christ.  But once we have seen Christ and truly received the gift of salvation, then we no longer need to be directed to Christ!  In fact, if we are doing righteousness then we no longer need to have the mirror there to illustrate how sinful we are!  This is why Paul tells us that those who are in Christ are free from the Law.

The part of us that is obedient to God and Christ truly does not have a need for the Law.  The part of me that is disobedient has every need for the Law in order to point me back to Christ.

Speaking of My Sinfulness

Having said that, let’s also re-introduce reality.  I am not perfect.  I am not a person who only does things that are righteous in God’s eyes.  I do have sin in my life.  I do need to confess my sins and be reminded that I need the Law to remind me of my perpetual need for Christ.  So while in the ideal world the follower of Christ has no need for the Law; the fact that I am living both in the Kingdom of the World and the Kingdom of Heaven means that I still have need for the Law.  This is why the Hebrew Scriptures make such a prevalent appearance in our New Testament.  As Martin Luther says, we are “simul justus et peccator” – simultaneously saint and sinner as it is often translated.  The saint in me has no need for the Law, only Christ.  The sinner in me has every need for the Law to remind me who I really am and to drive me back to Christ.

Conflict Between the Ideal and Reality

To close this blog, I think it is important to have a discussion about the conflict that Paul talks about in the last half of this chapter.  It is the conflict that was prevalent in the end of my last paragraph.  “When I do right, evil lies close at hand.”  “I do not do what I want to do, but I do the very thing that I do not want to do.”  Both of these questions lift up Paul’s struggle – every true Christian’s struggle – with his nature.  We want to be Christ’s; but so often we are the world’s.  Ugh.

It’s not very helpful, but welcome to life, right?  We are not perfect and never will be this side of the resurrection into eternal life.  We want to do right, but we won’t perpetually do right this side of death.  It is a struggle that rages within us at our very core.  Like our planet – which has a molten core churning about its inside that creates the magnetic field of the earth – we too have an inner churning that creates a field around us.  Sometimes that field is helpful and full of righteousness; sometimes that field is destructive and driven by our sinfulness.  But we are in a struggle – in a war – and that struggle exists in the very core of our being.

So who can save us?  If all of us have this struggle, then we are indeed wretched!  We are a pitiable race.  But thanks be to God that He saw fit to give us Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God that His salvation has come to us a free gift which relies on no part of our character.  There is grace indeed.

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Year 2, Day 29: Romans 6

More Chocolate Ice Cream, Please

Paul gives us a great opening statement in Romans 6.  Essentially he asks if we should continue in sin so that by our ever-increasing sin tally we can show God’s graciousness all the more.  And in a twisted human manner, this makes a lot of sense, right?  After all – if I may make a food analogy – if chocolate ice cream is good, then more chocolate ice cream is better, right?

Ha!  This thought always amuses me.  Yes, chocolate ice cream is good.  But if I sit down and try to eat a whole gallon of chocolate ice cream I will reach a point where I no longer value the chocolate ice cream.  No matter how much ice cream I eat, I will eventually get to a place where I am full or just plain tired of the taste.

So it is with God’s grace and forgiveness.  God has an infinite ability to forgive, but He only promises forgiveness to the contrite in heart and the repentant.  If I continue in my sin without care for God’s ways, it is as if I no longer have a taste for caring about repentance and forgiveness.  Just like too much chocolate leads to an internal devaluing of chocolate’s appeal, too much sin leads to a devaluing of God’s grace and forgiveness.

A Better Understanding not an Increase in Opportunity

Then Paul moves us to another great thought.  Rather than approaching life as though we are free to sin all we want, what we should be doing is approaching life with the perspective of a new understanding to humanity.  That understanding is this: just as Jesus died for our sins, so we have died to our sins; just as Jesus has risen to a new life, so we have risen to a new life in Christ.  This is the point of baptism, and notice that Paul makes no mention of faith or needing to “believe” that it is effective when baptism is done.  Baptism is a sign for us that in Christ we are dead to sin and free to live a new life.  Our baptism is a symbol of death and a proclamation that we believe that just as we rise from this water so to shall we rise into new life.*

How cool is it to think about baptism as a reminder of our death to sin.  In fact, this is precisely why Martin Luther encourages us to think about our baptism each and every morning.  It is not because this baptism forces God to save us, but it reminds us of the promise that God can and will save us!  Remembering our baptism each and every day reminds us that because God can save us we can live a new life.  Remembering our baptism does just what Paul talks about here in Romans 6.  When we remember our baptism we remember that we are not to go on sinning but rather we are to live a new life in Christ.

Slaves To Righteousness

Masterfully, Paul then transitions us from realizing we are to live a new life to presenting ourselves to God.  Furthermore, Paul returns us back to an image I blogged about as we began Romans.  Paul says we are to present ourselves to God as tools of righteous – even as slaves to righteousness!

This is such a huge concept, and I have blogged about it in the past.  Furthermore, this is a concept that normally rubs the typical American (or human) completely the wrong way.  In Christ, we are not free.  Yes, we are freed from sin.  We are freed from the bondage of sin.  We are freed from the consequences of sin.  But we are not free in every sense of the word. 

We are slaves to God.  We are slaves to righteousness.  And thanks be to God we are slaves to the consequences of righteousness: namely eternal life!  We are free to do God’s will; but we are not free to do as we please!  When we do as we please, we are sinning and are putting ourselves back into slavery to sin.

You see, there are two simple choices: slavery to sin and slavery to God.  If we are following God, we are His slaves.  If we are following our own hearts we are by definition following sin and a slave to it.  There is no true “freedom of the human will.”  We may exert “free will to choose,” but in doing so all we are doing is choosing which master we serve: God or sin.  Of course we have free will, but we are never our own master.

As proof of that, think about death.  We may be master over our choices, but how many of us can choose not to die?  No, all shall die.  So at the very least we can see that this idea of “free will” is not with respect to our whole life but rather with respect to the choices we make.  I can choose to serve God or I can choose to serve sin.  But I will eventually die whether I exercise my free will to choose it or not.

I’ve gone a bit off topic here, so let me try and reign it back it.  I absolutely believe in free will – human beings have the ability to choose which master we will serve {See Joshua 24:15 as an example}.  But in that choice we must know that the wages of sin is death and all who choose to serve sin will die.  That’s all of us to some extent.  But we can receive the free gift of eternal life from God through Jesus Christ.  Pay special attention to the contrast here between “wages” and “gift.”  We have all earned the wage of death, but we can receive the gift of life.

Thanks be to God!  Amen, amen!

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*I do feel the need to assert here that I am not teaching salvation by baptism.  I teach and believe that salvation comes through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and only through Jesus’ death on that cross.  This is why I speak of baptism as a sign.  Baptism is a declaration of God’s promise that He can bring into new life those who truly belong to Christ.  Baptism is an act that the Christian church professes to practice because Christ commands it and because it declares our belief in the resurrection to new life.

Year 2, Day 28: Romans 5

Peace With God

Keep in mind that the book of Romans reads much like a logical argument or even a legal brief.  In Romans 1-3, Paul has made his case already that nobody is righteous {with or without the Law}.  Then, in Romans 4, Paul made the case that the only way that any of us are righteous is through Jesus Christ and the righteousness that He brought to the table for us.  Now Paul will make the case that if we are indeed resting in the promise of righteousness gained through Christ, then we have peace and hope with God.  This is the thrust of chapter 5.

Grace Abounds

Here is the point of the first 11 verses: if God saw fit to save us when we were full of sin, then how much more we should know the life that comes in God now that we have been saved through Jesus Christ.  At first, that sentence feels very much like a “well, duh!” kind of sentence.  But I’m not trying to be Captain Obvious here.  I really want us to look deeply into what Paul is saying and make sure that we actually do get what Paul is saying.  If we really get it, then we should really be living it out, too, right?

You see, what Paul is saying is that if we really believe that we are saved through Jesus Christ and through nothing of our own action, our lives should be different.  If we really are saved in the midst of our sinfulness, then we should be a new creation!  We shouldn’t simply acknowledge our salvation before God.  We shouldn’t simply talk about the day when God will make us a new person.  We should be that new person right here and right now.  If God can see it fit to save us while we are still in sin, God can see fit to change what we even while we are in these fleshly and corruptible bodies.

Sure, we are not perfect.  We will always be tempted by the pull of sin for as long as we live here in this world.  And yes, there will come a day when we are resurrected in new bodies with a pure heart.  But we do not have to wait to experience that feeling.  We can be changed here and now.  After all, suffering brings about endurance, endurance produces character, and character brings us into hope.  We may not be perfect now, but we can indeed know the hope that is in God right here and right now.

Adam and Christ

Having made this trio of theological assertions {all are condemned, Romans 1-3; righteousness only  comes through Christ, Romans 4; and the righteous have hope and peace with God, Romans 5} Paul now sets up the case.  Sin came through one man: Adam.  Once sin entered the world, it infected everything and everyone.  Death became the natural end of life in spite of the fact that life was not designed to end in a perfect world. 

But if sin came through one man, then it also makes sense that righteousness should come through one man: Jesus Christ.  Now that righteousness has entered the world, it too can infect everyone.  Although death is the now the natural end of life, through Jesus Christ death is no longer the final word.  Death may be the end of life, but eternal life with God is now the final word.  Death came through human sinfulness; true life comes through the righteousness of God through the God-made-man.

In fact, there is a neat little comparison that Paul does here in this chapter.  He makes the following argument: Judgment follows even one act of sin; righteousness follows even one great act of righteousness {Specifically, the one act of Christ upon the cross.}  Another neat way of thinking about this is: One single act of sin brought many trespasses, yet many trespasses were forgiven through one single act of righteousness.  Both of these arguments follow from Paul’s words, and both of these arguments show the consistency of God’s character in both judgment and forgiveness.

Repetition

As we read through these concluding verses we come back around full circle to where I began this particular blog post.  But before we go there, did you notice all the repetition in this chapter?  The word “one” is repeated eleven times.  The word “reign” is repeated five times.  The phrase “much more” is repeated five times.  Clearly what we have going on here is the assertion that what is gained through the reign of one Jesus is much more than what was lost through the reign of the sin of one Adam.

Full Circle

Now how does that bring us back full circle?  Well, if we believe what this chapter says, then those in Christ should be “much more” than we were before we were in Christ.  We may not be made perfect and unblemished, but we are still part of the kingdom of heaven and Jesus’ Christ’s reign here on earth.  We should be different.  Those in Christ should absolutely be much more than what we were before we received the gift of grace that comes through Christ’s death for us.  If we believe the faith, then shouldn’t we be living the faith, too?

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Year 2, Day 27: Romans 4

No Works will bring about Righteousness

Here is a great chapter against works righteousness – perhaps one of the chapters most influential in Martin Luther’s own understanding of “salvation by the grace of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.”  It begins with a quote from Genesis 15:6.  Abraham believed the Lord, and it was credited to Him as righteousness.

Now here’s the interesting thing.  In order to believe, you must first have an experience.  I’m not going to believe a word in any book unless I first read the book.  I’m not going to believe a word that a speaker says until I have heard the speaker talk.  The same is true with Abraham.  He could not believe in God until God had come to Him.  Abraham’s belief is not a work of righteousness.  Abraham’s believe is a response to the righteousness of God that comes to him.  As a response, it is credited to Abraham.

We are no different in Christ.  Our belief in Jesus, our belief in His death being able to pay the debt of our sins, our belief in God’s ability to conquer death in us as He did in Christ – all of these beliefs are not works of righteousness.  They are responses to the righteousness that came to us in Jesus Christ and as such are “credited” to us.  But the truth is that we do nothing but respond to the grace of God that is perpetually before us.  We may act, but we our actions are always responses to the gift that God has put before us in the first place.

This is a vitally important understanding for us to have.  As Paul says, if we are able to earn salvation, then salvation is due to us.  If we work our way into salvation, then salvation is not a gracious gift but simply an economic transaction.  If salvation was able to be earned, it would not be credited to us but rather due to us.  Thus, because the Bible tells us that it is credited to us, we can know that salvation is grace given by God to which we can then respond rather than something that is owed to us by God because we are righteous.

When was Faith Reckoned

Paul then gets into a discussion about when faith was reckoned to Abraham.  Paul says that the reckoning occurred well before the act of circumcision.  We know this to be true. Abraham is credited in Genesis 15 while Abraham wasn’t given the covenant of circumcision until Genesis 17.  Abraham’s faith came before any act.  Abraham’s salvation comes as a gift from God, and his faith is on account of his response to God’s gift.  In any case, it is not because of some act that he performs.

Again, we are no different.  We are not saved because of any act we perform.  We are not saved because we were baptized (whether as an infant or an adult).  We are not saved because of some “sinner’s prayer” that we prayed.  We are saved as a gift of God that He has lavishly granted to all through Jesus Christ.  All we must do is to receive the gift.  God gives the gift, we respond.  As a part of our response, we faithfully do things like baptisms, prayer, evangelism, teaching, preaching, service, communion, etc.  None of those things save us, but they are phenomenal responses to the salvation that God has offered to us in the first place.

The Significance of Our Response

I love the way Paul ends this chapter.  As it was counted to Abraham, so it shall be counted to us if we believe.  It is not our belief that saves us, yet our response is not lost on God, either.  When we receive the gift of salvation, it is counted to us as righteousness.  When we believe in Christ, it is counted to us as righteousness.  When we evangelize and proclaim Jesus Christ to the world it is counted to us as righteousness.  When we serve in Christ’s name, when we give a cup of cold water to the thirsty, when we visit the sick or imprisoned, and when we do anything else that demonstrates the grace and compassion of God it will be counted to us as righteousness.  It is righteous because God’s righteousness has come to us and we have responded to His righteousness.

We can have confidence as Abraham had confidence.  We can look to God and believe His promise.  He was with Abraham and fulfilled what He promised.  He was with David and fulfilled what He promised.  He was with Jesus and fulfilled what He promised.  He is with us, and He will fulfill what He promises to us as well.  Have faith, believe.  Rest in the fact that your salvation is not based on your own works but on the grace of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Then, respond!

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Year 2, Day 26: Romans 3

The Purpose of the Law

Here Paul brings logic into the mix of the discussion.  Let’s make sure that we understand why the logical argument is needed.  You see, many among the Jews believed that the Law was their salvation.  Paul argues that the Law doesn’t bring salvation; it actually brings knowledge of just how far we are from deserving salvation!  Then Paul is no doubt asked a great question.  If the law doesn’t bring salvation then why even have it?  It is out of this line of thinking that Paul begins this chapter.

The Law is good and the Law is necessary because it points to our life and highlights sin.  Through our ever-increasing understanding of sin, we also have an ever-increasing understanding of God’s grace.  When we look to the Law, we understand just how big the chasm is between us and God.  When we probe the depth of the Law and see what true righteousness looks like – we are inherently laying the foundation for understanding the heights to which God’s grace rises.

Think of it this way.  If you are walking down the street and find a $5,000 bill, you consider yourself lucky.  You might try to find the owner, but let’s say that you can’t because the bill has been there for several days and the owner is long gone.  So you pocket the money and count yourself blessed.  You didn’t earn it, and you slip right past the need to fathom God’s blessing upon you.

However, now think about walking down the street and suddenly a black van pulls up beside you and IRS agents crawl out of the van.  They inform you that you are being arrested for some mistake on your taxes unless you can pay the $5,000 penalty incurred by your mistake.  Not having the $5,000 on your person, they begin to arrest you.  All of a sudden, some stranger appears and hands the agents $5,000 and demands your release.  In this scenario, you are going to ponder the grace and generosity of the stranger who had no reason to intervene but he does anyway. {Yes, the scenario is contrived.  But I’m okay with that.}

In this second case, the IRS agents are analogous to the Law. {And please don’t stretch the analogy too far, all analogies break when stretched too far.}  The Law comes along and tells us about an error we made.  Just like in taxes, sometimes we are aware of an error and sometimes we aren’t aware of an error.  The Law demands that a payment be made, a payment that we have no chance of paying.  So when we find the payment made by someone who had no reason to make the payment, we now realize God’s grace.  The Law points us to Jesus, who paid that debt when we could not.

Righteousness In Christ

In the second half of the chapter Paul talks about the fact that the Law and the Prophets bear witness to faith and righteousness, which comes apart from the Law.  You see, all are saved through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.  Righteous comes not from our own faith, but because Christ was faithful.  When we turn to God and trust in His ability to save, we are cloaked in Christ’s righteousness.  Nothing we do – even our so called “belief” – is righteous.  Our righteousness originates purely in Christ.

This is why Paul can make the claim in the end that God is the God of the Jews and the Gentiles.  There doesn’t need to be a different God if the same righteousness coming from the same Jesus Christ is what matters.  Law or no law, it is the righteousness of Christ that saves and is the foundation of salvation.

Think of it this way.  Paul came to an understanding of Jesus Christ much like I did – through the Law and an understanding of how the Law illustrates human depravity.  Paul saw the need for salvation through Christ because of his understanding of God’s Word and the truth it contains.  Through the study of the Holy Scriptures, Paul came to know that humanity has no chance of saving itself.  In this sense, Paul used the scriptures to help him come to Christ.  The being true, salvation still comes through Jesus Christ and not through the Law.

On the other hand, it is possible for a person outside of the law to still come to an understanding of human depravity.  It is possible to come to the knowledge that human beings are selfish, self-centered, hedonistic individuals without knowing the Law.  In this case, it is possible that a person could rationalize that such a self-centered person cannot make a righteous way into salvation themselves without corrupting it.  Such a person would still need a “righteous outsider” to save them.  Faith and salvation still comes through Christ.  {Although admittedly that this is a far more difficult and risky approach because it eliminates a very useful tool in understanding the nature of humanity: God’s Word.  But it is possible to come to an understanding of human depravity without the Law.  That’s Paul’s point.  One simply needs to be introduced to Christ in this situation.}

In either case, though, the result is the same.  Whether through the Law or through human observation, we understand that we cannot save ourselves.  We simply cannot do it.  We need Christ.  Those who have the Law have an incredible tool to use in the process.  But it results with the same ending and the same need for Christ’s righteousness to cover what we cannot make for ourselves.

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Year 2, Day 25: Romans 2

Careful Consideration Must Be Given

Great harm has often been done with the opening verses of Romans 2.  I have heard person after person lift up Romans 2:1-3 as proof that they have no right to “judge” one another.  Now, on one hand this is absolutely correct.  Not one of us human beings have any right to judge whether a fellow human being is going to be with God in eternal life or destined to eternal torment.  None of us can ever sit in the judgment seat of God and dutifully determine the eternal destination of anyone.  It’s just not possible for us to do that with any kind of righteousness.

However, this does not mean that we cannot “judge” an act as sinful or righteous.  This passage does not mean that we have to throw open our doors and accept all kinds of behavior into our midst.  This passage is not advocating that we should accept any behavior because we are ourselves sinful!  No!  While we should never pronounce eternal condemnation upon people; neither should we embrace all actions, either.

In fact, Romans 2:4 is the key to understanding the opening verses.  Paul is asking his readers if they overlook judgment and “presume the riches of God and His forbearance.”  In the same verse Paul then reminds us that judgment is supposed to bring about repentance.  Do you see it?

Repentance is the key!  Forgiveness is given to the repentant and contrite heart; not the heart that skips judgment and goes straight to grace!  How can you ever arrive at repentance if you never allow the Spirit to convict of sinfulness?

In order to be true followers of God, we must proclaim both God’s grace as well as God’s condemnation of sin and our need for repentance.  This is precisely the Law and Gospel mix that we hear so much about.  It is the Law that drives us to an understanding of our sinfulness and our need for God’s Gospel of salvation!  It is the Law – and our complete and utter lack of attaining it – that drives us to the cross!

No Partiality

Paul then levels an incredible line: God shows no partiality.  Wham!  No partiality.  Actually, to be true to the text we should understand that the word “partiality” – or “favoritism” – is the subject of the sentence.  So the true translation of this text is literally, “For partiality is not within God.”  Not only does God not show partiality, but partiality has no place within God.  Wow.  Now that’s deep.

You see, God may have a chosen people.  But the Hebrew people weren’t chosen because they were better.  They were chosen for a task.  They were chosen to display God to the world.  God is not partial to the Jews because He loved them more and He will not be partial to them because they were His chosen.  Rather, all will be held up to the same standard and as we shall hear in the next chapter all will be seen as coming short of that standard.  So there really is no room for partiality within God.  All are measured against the stick of righteousness, and all have literally no hope of measuring up.

It’s not sounding very good for humanity if we take what Paul has said in the first two chapters thus far.

From Where Does Our Hope Come?

So who then can look for hope?  Those who have a circumcised heart can look for hope.  Those who not only hear the law but who also do it have hope. 

I’m not talking works based salvation in these words.  We do the law out of response!  We do not do the law in order to earn salvation.  Those who have an internal response to God’s gift of faith can look for hope.

Recognizing Our Sinful Nature

But even then, who among us can actually say that we are perfect inside where it counts?  Who among us can say that our heart is always circumcised with respect to following God?  Who among us – if God truly were to lay out the desires of our heart before Him – would honestly be able to rise up and confess that we fit into the righteous category? 

Without Christ, I doubt that number is very big.  But now that I’m introducing Christ into the equation, I’m guilty of putting the cart before the horse.  The point of Romans 2 is to lead us to our need for Christ, but not yet arrive there.  It is still valuable for us to dwell on our unrighteousness and just how uncircumcised our hearts actually are.  So we know the answer is Christ, but let’s not go there yet.  Paul doesn’t go there, yet.

I know.  It is painful.  We want to jump to Christ.  We want to revel in forgiveness and be done with the pain of judgment.  We want to assert the truth that we know is already there.  We want to be a people of Easter and assert the victory of God. 

But hold on just a little longer.  Let’s be a people of Maundy Thursday for just a little longer.  Let’s understand our need for that Passover Lamb.  Let’s recognize just how hard our hearts can be.  Let’s understand just how much we are guilty of teaching against sin but going out and doing the sin we confess is wrong.  Let’s truly wallow in our rebellious nature for a day or two before coming ack to the grace we already know is there.

Paul talks about how hypocritical we sound when we profess something to be true and then prove it to not be true with our practices.  Paul actually goes to the extreme of calling those kinds of opportunities not just hypocritical but actually he calls them blaspheming the name of God.  That’s a pretty base accusation.  But it is the truth of human sinfulness.  When push comes to shove, it is who we are when left to our own devices.  When left to ourselves, God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because our humanity does not match what we profess to believe in our hearts.  People all across the world are given ability to blaspheme God because we who are His children deny Him with our lifestyle and our words.

I know it is painful to stay here, but trust me.  If we dwell here for a day or so … then what comes in the future will feel all the more welcome!  Hang in there.  Contemplate your sinfulness today.  Contemplate the ways that our inability to walk the walk actually blasphemes God’s name in the mouths and minds of those who witness it.  As Paul reminds us in the beginning of this chapter, let these thoughts drive you to repentance!

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Year 2, Day 24: Romans 1

Personal Confession

Okay, this may be the biggest challenge I will have faced with respect to the blog.  The book of Romans is one of my all-time favorite books of the Bible and I could likely do a blog post on each paragraph, much less each chapter.  So I will endeavor to keep them readable … but I will be letting a few things slip through the cracks in doing so.  So … the comments section is wide open if I don’t address a part of the passage that you get something out of as you read!  It’s just not possible to cover it all for the next 16 days!

Paul, the Slave

“Paul, a ‘doulos’ of God.”  Doulos is a Greek word that literally means “one who becomes the property of another.”  If your Bible says servant, scratch it out and write in the word slave.  It is one thing to be a servant of God; it is entirely another thing to be His slave.

Let me expound.  A servant does something because they feel like they are willingly serving their master.  But this mindset backfires, because there will inevitably be days when I am unwilling because of the task or because of my human “bad mood.”  When I think of myself as a servant, I open myself up to be subject to my own mood and my own attitude.  That is not at all who Paul was! 

Paul was a slave.  Paul gave up his attitude and mood and just did what God called him to do.  That’s precisely what makes Paul such an awesome example for us.  Paul was God’s slave.  God commanded; Paul did.  Yes, there are days where Paul wrestled with God – see the Corinthians as an example.  Paul wasn’t perfect.  But his mindset was slave, not servant.  God demands obedience and contrition, not a person who “decides” to go along with His work.

Paul’s mindset was that he was God’s property.  That’s precisely what the word “doulos” meant.  That is what makes Paul great in my eyes.  He doesn’t need to be anything but God’s property.  He knows that being God’s property is far better than being a person of his own choosing.  Wow.  Now that’s a powerful challenging thought to American culture and the modern (or post-modern) mindset!

Paul, the Apostle

Paul also uses the word “apostolos,” which we often think of as “Apostle.”  We turn it into a title, but it is not a title.  It is a job description.  The word apostolos literally means “one who is sent (to do the bidding of another).”  Paul is a person who was sent to do God’s work.  He is sent by God.  He isn’t out doing his own work.  He isn’t out making his own path.  He is out actively looking for where God is leading.  Again, Paul’s focus is not on his own greatness but on God being the master in charge.

Paul and the Gospel

Paul then begins this awesome section about not being ashamed of the Gospel.  How cool is this?  Here is Paul, who gave approval to the death of Stephen, now saying that he is not ashamed of that which he tried desperately to snuff out!  Awesome!  And why should he be ashamed?

Paul goes on that add that the reason he is not ashamed is because through Christ God has brought salvation to those who don’t deserve it.  That is what the rest of the chapter is about.  Paul talks about how God has been made plain to the world.  God has been declared to the world through words in some cases and through nature in other cases.  God’s fingerprint is all around us! 

Excuses, Excuses

None of us have any excuse.  All of us are guilty of the list of sins that Paul asserts as we close out this chapter:

• Our hearts are darkened by our humanity
• We claim to be wise in our thinking but we show our foolishness when we ignore the pursuit of God
• We glorify things of our own making
• We pursue the lusts of our own hearts
• We exchange the relationship that God desires for unnatural relationships that we desire
• We are filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness, gossip, slander, hatred for God, insolence, haughtiness, boastfulness, disobedience (especially to parents), foolishness, faithlessness, heartlessness, ruthlessness

So God gives us over to what our hearts desire.  God watches us sink into the sin that our hearts pursue.  God knows the guilt that rests in our heart.  We are guilty, friends.  There is no decree that we deserve except for the decree of our guilt.

Knowing this, do we still desire to think of ourselves as God’s servants and dislike thinking of ourselves as God’s slaves?  No, having deserved death let us become God’s slaves.  Let us become His property, for clearly we do not deserve even that.  Knowing the depth of evil that lay within our individual hearts and our collective communal essence, why would we want anything other than to be God’s slave?  The more we add of ourselves to God’s work, the more we are likely to despoil it.  Rather than force ourselves on God, let’s learn to be content doing what He desires us to do.

Humility before God is righteous.  God desires contrition and a broken heart.  Let’s give Him that today.

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