I would like to apologize in advance for the length of this post. It is loooong!!! I tried to keep it as concise as possible, but did not want to leave out any important information. FYI, it took our church aprox. 40 weeks to go through these chapters. Yesterday we investigated the fact that we are all sinners, but that our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior has rescued us from eternal death. Once we accept Jesus gift, and decide to follow Him as Lord, we are at peace with God. Peace with God means that we have been reconciled with him. There is no more hostility between us, no sin blocking our relationship with him. Todays reading, contains some difficult concepts. To understand the next four chapters, it helps to keep in mind the two-sided reality of the Christian life. On the one hand, we are complete in Christ (our acceptance with him is secure). On the other hand, we are growing in Christ (we are becoming more and more like him). We feel both the presence of Christ and the pressure of sin. We enjoy the peace that comes from being made right with God, but we still face daily problems that often help us grow. If we remember these two sides of the Christian life, we will not grow discouraged as we face temptations and problems. Instead, we will learn to depend on the power available to us from Christ, who lives in us by the Holy Spirit. God is holy, and he will not be associated with sin. All people are sinful and so they are separated from God. In addition, all sin deserves punishment. Instead of punishing us with the death we deserve, however, Christ took our sins upon himself and took our punishment by dying on the cross. Paul talks about sin entering into the world through one man Adam, and now because of that sin we are condemned to die.... When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Romans 5:12 You might ask yourself...How can we be declared guilty for something Adam did thousands of years ago? Many feel it isn’t fair for God to judge us because of Adam’s sin. Yet each of us confirms our heritage with Adam by our own sins every day. We have the same sinful nature and are prone to rebel against God, and we are judged for the sins we commit. Because we are sinners, it isn’t fairness we need—it is mercy. Paul tells us that the law was added, to help people see their sinfulness, to show them the seriousness of their offenses, and to drive them to God for mercy and pardon; that keeping the law does not bring salvation... God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. Romans 5:20 The law points out our sin and places the responsibility for it squarely on our shoulders. But the law offers no remedy. When we are convicted of sin, we must turn to Jesus Christ for healing. Adam was the counterpart of Christ. Just as Adam was a representative of created humanity, so is Christ the representative of a new spiritual humanity. We were all born into Adam’s physical family—the family line that leads to certain death. All of us have reaped the results of Adam’s sin. We have inherited his guilt, a sinful nature (the tendency to sin), and God’s punishment. Because of Jesus, however, we can trade judgment for forgiveness. Christ offers us the opportunity to be born into his spiritual family—the family line that begins with forgiveness and leads to eternal life. If we do nothing, we receive death through Adam; but if we come to God by faith, we receive life through Christ. This great exchange (Jesus dying for our sins) weve been reading about, is called Justification. Justification is the process by which by believing, and accepting what Jesus has done for us, we are made justified under the law. In other words, Jesus has paid our debt that was due--death. A good way to remember what Justification means is by looking at it like this: JUSTIFICATION...JUSTIFIED... JUST-IF-ID-NEVER SINNED Continuing onto the our next chapter in Romans, we learn about a theological term called Sanctification. This is the process that comes after Justification. Justification happens the minute we believe and accept Jesus sacrifice for us. The minute we truly believe that, we have been Saved. Sanctification is the process by which, now that the Holy Spirit is living in us, God is working in us and making us more and more like Jesus everyday. The process of Sanctification is not instant, it takes a lifetime. Paul then asks and answers the question that everyone who was this letter may have been thinking.... Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Romans 6:1 Leave it to man to come up with a question like that one!!! But we shouldnt be surprised that people would look for a loophole, or try to manipulate the grace that God has given us. Paul gives us the answer to this question.... Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Romans 6:2 Such an attitude—deciding ahead of time to take advantage of God—shows that a person does not understand the seriousness of sin. God’s forgiveness does not make sin less serious; his Son’s death for sin shows us the dreadful seriousness of sin. Jesus paid with his life so we could be forgiven. The availability of God’s mercy must not become an excuse for careless living and sin. Paul then goes onto explain that once we believe in Jesus was have taken our old lives, and crucified them along with Him..... We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Romans 6:6-7 The power of sin over us died with Christ on the cross. Our “old sinful selves,” our sinful nature, died once and for all, so we are freed from its power. The “power of sin” refers to our rebellious sin-loving nature inherited from Adam. Though we often willingly cooperate with our sinful nature, it is not us but the sin in us that is evil. And it is this power of sin at work in our life that is defeated. Paul emphasizes that we need no longer live under sin’s power. God does not take us out of the world or make us robots—we will still feel like sinning, and sometimes we will sin. The difference is that before we were saved we were slaves to our sinful nature, but now we can choose to live for Christ. Because of our union and identification with Christ, we no longer want to pursue our old plans, desires, and goals. Now we want to live for the glory of God. As we start this new life, the Holy Spirit will help us become all that Christ wants us to be. Paul then tells us that whether we realize it or not, we all serve someone or something, and that thing is our master. We are free to choose between two masters, but we are not free to adjust the consequences of our choice. Each of the two masters pays with his own kind of currency. The currency of sin is eternal death. That is all you can expect or hope for in life without God. Jesus currency is eternal life—new life with God that begins on earth and continues forever with God. In Chapter 7, Paul shows that the law is powerless to save the sinner, the law keeper, and even the person with a new nature. The sinner is condemned by the law; the law keeper can’t live up to it; and the person with the new nature finds his or her obedience to the law sabotaged by the effects of the old nature. He is not saying that the law is bad, hes simply saying that it cannot save us. Once again Paul declares that salvation cannot be found by obeying the law. No matter who we are, only Jesus Christ can set us free..... So the trouble is not with the law, for it is spiritual and good. The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin. I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 7:15-24 Wait a minute!!! you might say. I thought Paul had just said that we are no longer a slave to sin. Now hes saying we are? Paul is explaining that in OUR OWN HUMAN STRENGTH we are still slaves. It is only once we are born again, and are living under the influence of the Holy Spirit, that we have the power to break free from that slavery. Paul is explaining the battle that goes on in his own life, and saying that once we are born again, it is our responsibility to yield to the Holy Spirit. It is then and only then that we are able to not sin. Finally, we come to Chapter 8... So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 Paul begins Chapter 8 by letting us know that we have been acquitted; we have been found not guilty, and set free. A good way to look at this would be that the whole human race is currently on death row justly condemned for repeatedly breaking God’s holy law. Without Jesus we would have no hope at all. But thank God! He has declared us not guilty and has offered us freedom from sin and power to do His will. Paul divides people into two categories: those who are dominated by their sinful nature, and those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit. All of us would be in the first category if Jesus hadn’t offered us a way out. Once we have said yes to Jesus, we will want to continue following him, because his way brings life and peace. Daily we must consciously choose to center our life on God. Use the Bible to discover God’s guidelines, and then follow them. In every perplexing situation, ask yourself, What would Jesus want me to do? When the Holy Spirit points out what is right, do it with joy. Have you ever worried about whether or not you really are a Christian? A Christian is anyone who has the Spirit of God living in him or her. If you have sincerely trusted Christ for your salvation and acknowledged him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit lives within you and you are a Christian. You can be assured that you have the Holy Spirit because Jesus promised that he would send him. youtube/watch?v=nPIOkdNL-QQ
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 04:23:40 +0000
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