“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.” Romans 7:12 NIV
The Law ( God’s commandments) are not the problem. Sin is!
God gave the Law to the Jewish people so they could get an understanding of His character. God also gave the Law so sin could be revealed. The Law was intended to point out to all of us how much we need a Savior.
For example the Ten Commandments:
These are good moral laws that we should abide by, but have we?
If we have broken just one, we have become a lawbreaker. We have sinned.
The problem is not the Law, that is “holy, righteous, and good.” The problem is us. We are all sinners desperately in need of a Savior, and our Good God has provided for that need — Jesus!
Thank You Father for sending Jesus! What we could not do on our own, You did for us. Long ago You gave us Your Law so that we could understand how much we need You to give us a new heart — a heart that desires to obey You! Thank You for Your gift of salvation that changes everything in our lives and helps us to walk after Your Way!
“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.” Romans 6:19 NIV
We were created by Love and for Love! God’s intent for us from the beginning of creation was a love relationship. In this relationship, we would love Him with all of our heart, all of our mind, all of our soul, and all of our strength. We were created for worship of Him, or love expressed to Him. We were meant to “offer ourselves” to Him over and over every moment of every day. In return, we would receive from Him everything we ever needed — love, goodness, joy, etc. We were designed by Him to be “slaves to righteousness.’
A slave is subject to the will of another. They have no will of their own. They are wholly under the control of another. (Webster’s 1828) They are abandoned to the one they have given themselves to.
Because we were born into a fallen world, we have not lived as we were designed. Instead we have lived as “slaves to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness.” We willingly gave ourselves over to follow its leading. Jesus came to provide the way of freedom in Him!
Jesus came to break the power of sin. Once again, through relationship with God we are able to “offer ourselves” to Him presenting ourselves as an act of worship — extravagant love and extremes submission. (Webster’s 1828)
How do we experience this? Simply come… Tell Him He can have all of you! Tell Him that you desire to obey Him and to experience Him and His love.
No matter what we will choose to abandon ourselves or give ourselves to something! Choose surrender to Jesus! His ways are best! His way is life!
“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11 NIV
Alive — Regenerated, Renovated Heart, Born Again! (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
There is beauty in living “alive.” The only way to really understand this statement is to experience it. When you know the depths of what you are without Jesus and then experience Him, you know the death, darkness, and destruction you dwelled in. But thank God that we can live “alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
You and I were dead. There was nothing good in us. BUT GOD! He has taken what was completely broken, without hope… dead. And He has breathed His life into us, regenerated. He has renovated our hearts because He is the ultimate “Fixer Upper.” He takes the completely ruined by sin heart and makes it new! We are born again into a New Life! We are ALIVE!
Being fully alive in Christ is something you have to experience to understand at all. It is foreign to us. He breathes life into us so we can KNOW what His life is like: It is joy. It is peace. It is love. It is mercy. It is goodness. It is all these things and more.
The beauty of the New Life of being “alive to God” is the very thing that God desires for us! He wants us to live attached to Him receiving His life in every circumstance and situation. This starts with salvation, where we enter our relationship with God. It continues as we live day in and day out connected to Him in relationship!
We need to come to Him each and every moment of each and every day so we can truly experience living “alive to God!”
“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 5:21 NIV
(This Week is Romans 5)
Before Jesus comes into our lives, all you and I will truly ever know is the death, the darkness, and the destruction of sin. On our own, we are helpless to overcome sin’s reign – its power and its influence. The struggle is so real. We know the good we should be doing, but we choose to do otherwise… this is sin. (James 4:17) Then the consequences we see of our wrong choices have a ripple effect. This influences even more wrong choices. Sin’s grip grows and grows. It is a merciless tyrant over our lives.
This is what makes the grace of Jesus so beautiful. Even though we have failed time after time after time. He comes with His love and favor. He has provided a way for the reign of sin to be broken over our lives — The Cross. Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection provides the way for grace to reign — have power and influence over us. Jesus forgives us our sins and gives us His righteousness. What we have done in the past no longer has power over us. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we receive the Holy Spirit living in us. He empowers us to live our lives where the rule of Grace grows and grows.
This is why it is so important that we spend time coming to know God better through His Word. The more we know Him, the more we will understand His love, and in turn we will love Him. The more we love Him, the more we will obey Him. The more we obey Him, the more we will experience His blessings. Simply put, the closer we are to Jesus, the more we will experience His freedom!
You and I weren’t meant to be living our lives subjected to the reign of sin! We were meant for the reign of grace and the true life we will experience through Jesus our Lord!
“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!” Romans 5:17 NIV
(Today we read Romans 5.)
The Garden of Eden was a happy place! Imagine being able to walk face to face with God — who is complete peace, complete joy, complete love, complete goodness, etc. There wasn’t any pain, sadness, or sorrow. Happiness, all the agreeable sensations from enjoying all of God’s goodness was all Adam and Eve experienced 24/7. But then they CHOSE to sin.
Death entered the picture. They were separated from that beautifully happy i.e. blessed relationship with God. From that moment on “death reigned.” The divine life they had experienced was just a memory. It remained that way until Jesus came.
Jesus is God’s “provision of grace.” (Or divine favor) His righteousness becomes ours when we place our trust in Him and receive Him as our Savior. Jesus came to restore what was lost in the Garden of Eden, and He has come to us to restore what was lost in our lives!
Sin only brings death to us! It separates us from what we were created for, living in relationship with God — being fully alive. We can possess the Happiness of Heaven through the new life that Jesus gives to us. This is what it is to “reign in life” through Jesus.
The more we experience God in close and intimate relationship, the more we will experience Him in our lives. His complete peace, His complete joy, His complete love, His complete goodness, etc. will be what we experience over and over again. Because God is who He says He is, and He wants us to KNOW Him. This knowing is to experience Him day in and day out.
Jesus told us when He walked on earth that we would experience troubles as we live on earth. The effects of sin are still with us… But we could take courage, because He has overcome the world! (John 16:33)
To reign is to “live victoriously” (Webster 1828 Dictionary). We can “reign in life (live victoriously), through the one man, Jesus Christ. He has given us all we need to live victoriously. His Holy Spirit living in us, empowers us and produces in us the fruit of a victorious life — peace, love, joy, patience, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. (Galatians 5:22)
The secret to this life of victory is close relationship to God. Just like Adam and Eve experienced before they sinned, we are to walk and talk with God. Jesus provided the way for our relationship to be restored. Once again we can experience the “happiness of the garden”, but now that happiness goes with us wherever we go because the Holy Spirit is living inside of us!
“For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Romans 5:10 NIV
Reconciled- “Brought into friendship from a state of disagreement or enmity” (Webster’s 1828)
Today is Romans 5!
We were created for connection to God! Relationship is connection. Back in the Garden of Eden, God’s intent for mankind was to have relationship. When Adam and Eve chose to sin, separation from God came. This separation is all we have really known and understood in our lives. It is the norm. But God desires for us to experience something radically different than that. He wants us to be united to Him in a close and intimate relationship!
This is why Jesus came. His death, burial and resurrection provides the way for us to experience His salvation from sin. When we accept Him as our Savior, we are justified by His blood. His blood cleanses us from the sin that has separated us from God. Then we experience the most beautiful thing — reconciliation. We are brought back into the relationship that God originally desired for us to have way back at the beginning, in the Garden of Eden.
This relationship we now have with God is closely connected to Him. He gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. We now live our lives literally walking and talking with God.
We go from being enemies of God, pursuing sin, to a friend of God, pursuing Him and His righteousness! We can now live our lives reconciled to God!
“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” Romans 4:13 NIV
Today is Romans 4.
I live in the country. Starry nights here are beautiful! Sometimes, at night, I go out and stand in my front yard and just gaze at the sky. The stars are everywhere. Then I think of the promise that God made to Abraham. “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky.” (Genesis 26:4) How amazing it is to me that one of those stars represents me.
Long ago, God came to Abraham and gave Him a promise. Abraham believed what God said. It was just that simple. It was Abraham’s faith in God that made him righteous. This changed the trajectory of our world. God worked throughout time and history to fulfill this promise of an inheritance that was so much bigger than a mere man, who God came to all those thousands of years ago. Abraham was directly in the lineage of Jesus, and Jesus came for the world that God promised to Abraham.
“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.” John 3:16 NIV
Jewish or non Jewish, Circumcised or uncircumcised, none of this matters. When we believe in Jesus, we can be confident that one of those stars we see lit in our skies at night was meant for us. The promise that God gave Abraham is true! God wanted to bless the world through Abraham’s faith!
God still wants to bless the world not only through Abraham’s faith, but through ours. When we believe God and receive the salvation He offers through Jesus, we are given His righteousness. It comes just as it did to Abraham, through faith. We are His! We have entered into relationship with God Himself.
In this relationship, we come to know God and in turn we make Him known to those around us. That way others can look up at the night sky, as Abraham did, and realize God’s promise is true, “God lit up that star for me.”
“And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them.” Romans 4:11 NIV
Today is Romans 4.
My husband and I started dating in the Spring of 92. We married after a whirlwind romance that occurred in what we fondly call our “Summer of Love.” (We married after 8 months, in January) I was 21 and he was 19.
It was during this time that Rich decided he wanted to seal the deal on our relationship and display that we were “a thing.” So as we were driving across an overpass not far from the campus house I lived in, he flipped his High School Senior ring up on the dashboard of the car and said, “Here you go! Put this on. It should keep the other boys from flirting with you.” Being 21 and having been in college for three years. I thought it was a little to “High Schoolish” for me, but I didn’t want to scare him off. (He was soooo cute!). So I put it on!
My heart was already his! We had a relationship. That ring was a sign and a seal!
For the Jewish people, Circumcision was meant to be just that! God wanted a nation that was His. This nation was to display Him, His glory, to the world around it. Circumcision was meant to be a sign and seal that the Jewish people were in a committed relationship with God. It wasn’t what made them righteous, or in right standing with Him. Righteousness only comes through faith! Not our deeds.
I could have wore that ring around back in 92 with my heart far from loving Rich. I could have hung out with him out of obligation or to get a free meal. Wearing it would have been hollow.
The circumcision that the Jewish people thought made them something special was only a hollow act if their hearts were not God’s.
They had the law. They followed the rules. But they weren’t obeying out of a heart that was connected to God through faith. They didn’t have the relationship!
“What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”” Romans 4:3 NIV
Today is Romans 4.
Abraham was living an ordinary life. He was working his job and living close to his family. Then one day God spoke to Him. He told Him to “Go.” God then spoke to him a promise.
Abraham did something extraordinary. He believed! He believed the Word of God. He believed the Promises were true. Out of that belief, he acted — he obeyed. When Abraham believed God “credited to him as righteousness.” Righteousness is “Purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law.” (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) It is right standing with God.
When Abraham listened to what God was saying and believed God. He was in right standing with God. He entered a relationship with God that came through his faith.
It wasn’t all the good things that Abraham did that established this relationship of right standing with God. It was when he simply believed.
God blessed Abraham for his faith and God made him a blessing. Many years later, Jesus was born out of his lineage. This alone was a miracle for a man whose wife had been unable to have a child.
God is speaking to us today. He desires for us to take Him at His Word and believe what He says. Jesus came as the living Word (expression of God) that proclaims to us God’s desire for relationship. We too can believe. Our belief in Jesus and what He did for us on the cross and then raising from the dead places us in right standing. It makes us righteous.
Relationship with God does not start with our good deeds. It starts with our faith in His Word that we hear.
“Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.” Romans 3:20 NIV
Today is Romans 3.
One of the most impactful exercises I have ever done is taking the time to complete a “Spiritual Inventory” list. It is a check list of sins that are listed in the Scripture. Prayerfully considering the condition of my spiritual heart is of upmost importance.
I believe it is healthy for us to come to God with the same prayer that David did on a regular basis:
“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalms 139:23-24 NIV
Sin numbs us. Our enemy would love for us to live unaware of the sin in our lives. He would love for us to blame all of our problems on others and our circumstances. He is aware that once we see the truth, we have a sin problem, we are close to freedom. Because it is the truth that sets us free from the chains of sin!
Romans 3 has a list that describes where we all are without God. It concludes that the Law of God, makes us “conscious of our sin.”
Knowing that we have a problem with sin is good! Then God can show us the answer for our sin problem, Jesus.
Even in the life of a believer, sin that we embrace separates us from that close and intimate relationship that God desires for us to have with Him. It clogs up the communication lines. It keeps us at a distance from Him.
Jesus has provided all that we need to deal with our sin problem. Once we become conscious of our sin all we need to do is go to Him in prayer. He promises us this:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 NIV
The Law served its purpose. It helped us to understand that we need Jesus! Jesus said that He didn’t abolish the law, or set it aside. He fulfilled it. What Jesus did on the cross is enough to deal with the sin in our lives.
Your Love 