I have said this before but it really is impossible to look at these Chapters completely separately from each other as they work in progression with each other. Paul starts chapter 6 with this kind of incredulous statement. “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!”  I think this is where it relates to Chapter 5 where he states that the more sin is revealed the more grace we find to deal with it and therefore it would be crazy to think that once we find and become aware of our sin that we would continue in it willingly. Of course not, Paul says we are to have died to sin and therefore it should be impossible for us to continue to live in it. Paul then declares theologically why we are baptized so that we get to participate in the death of Christ and therefore bury our own lives filled with sin so we can be raised from the dead to live a new life with him.

The question then becomes did we really die to sin? For some of us we would look at our lives and say in some areas we appear to be very much alive to sin and to that Paul might respond, “You need to die to that and bury it.” The power of this is that Jesus provided us a way to become free from the old habits of sin. Before Christ it was impossible to live free from it because the sin nature was our master that we were enslaved to. Through Christ we have the opportunity to live a new life without those past shackles holding us back. Paul is saying that is how we are to live, “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.” (6:12-13)

The next verse that really stands out to me is verse 17-18, “But thanks be to God that, through 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.” This wonderful picture of having the chains that we could not break falling from our lives while and then out of thankfulness and a heart full of love choose to obey and in a way become slaves of right living. Paul further explains that the end result of a life of sin is shame and death, but this new opportunity to live and be “controlled by righteousness” will lead to a life of fulfillment and holiness.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (vs. 23) Paul himself says he is just trying to illustrate a fact with a human illustration that really can’t be described with words. Death is the natural paycheck of living a life of sin, but in God’s world it’s not something we earn but are given and it’s so much better than just the opportunity to live but to live eternally with Him.

At the beginning of Chapter 5 we once again see the “therefore” which indicates that what he is about to say is the result or culmination of thoughts he has just said. Paul states we have proven that we are justified by faith which gives us peace with God and the access we currently have to grace. That’s a pretty rich sentence. It’s interesting to flip this in the reverse, if we don’t have faith in Jesus then we won’t be at peace with God and therefore we would find ourselves outside of God’s grace. Not Good! I think I’ll stick to faith in Jesus, thank you very much!

Paul then describes how we are to glory and rejoice in suffering because we know that suffering produces perseverance, character and hope. This reminds me of a slogan I have seen while running that “pain is weakness leaving the body.” I have also heard “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” These aren’t the most positive statements in the world there is an element of truth to them. Suffering seen from the right perspective can be seen with the glory that Paul talks about. It was said of Jesus that he “endured the cross, for the joy that was set before him.” May God help us to have the right perspective the next time we want to go all Diva on somebody for not letting us have our way.

In verse 5 it Paul makes a beautiful illustration of the infilling of the Holy Spirit in our lives as having God’s love poured into our hearts. I love that!

The next paragraph is meaty. Paul clearly states that we fallen beings did not warrant or earn our rescue but that Christ died for the ungodly and how this so clearly demonstrates God’s love for us. Many times we may be tempted to think that we need to change or get things right before we approach God but Paul makes it clear that Christ died for us while we were still heading headlong into sin. Amazing Grace!

Paul then begins to compare the sin of one man Adam and how it had such far reaching consequences but then illustrates how the righteous act of one man Christ Jesus has even more far reaching consequences or benefits. “Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all.” (5:18)

I wonder if in the last few verses Paul is saying that the more we walk with Christ and the more grace reveals to us the sin that we still need to confront and therefore even more grace is given. “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” Ultimately the place where we want to be is where Grace is reigning in our lives through right living which brings eternal life. Eternal life, I may have mentioned this before is not just something we look forward to later after we die but something that God intends for us to begin enjoying the benefits of right now!

“Works v/s Faith”

     As we begin our discussion on Romans Chapter 4 I would like to re-cap, the first three chapters. Paul has laid the foundation that “All are sinners and fall short of God’s Standards.” It does not matter if you are a Jew, who God choose to give his law, or to the gentiles who had no law. We are all equal, sinners fallen short of God’s standards. The law was only a mirror showing us how dirty and unclean we were. No matter how hard we try to keep the law it was not given to clean our filthiness and thus would never elevate us to his standard. It only pointed out how sinful we were.

     In chapter 4 Paul begins a discussion about works and righteousness and what comes first. I would like to say here that “Your good works have no place before forgiveness” this is the stumbling block. Vince, are you saying that the guy who abused his wife and children as opposed to me, who never did those things stand in the exact same position before Christ asking for forgiveness? “What about all the times I helped my neighbors and gave to charities, surely this places me ahead of that other guy” I am sorry to tell you this but all your good works are filthy before God and there is no difference in those who never did one good thing and you who had a life-style of so-called good works. This I believe is the major stumbling block for folks who feel like they are good people before coming to Christ.

   How was Abraham able to be justified before God being a sinner? Simply by believing God! or by having faith in God.

(NLT)

Rom 4:1  Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What were his experiences concerning this question of being saved by faith?

Rom 4:2  Was it because of his good deeds that God accepted him? If so, he would have had something to boast about. But from God’s point of view Abraham had no basis at all for pride.

Rom 4:3  For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, so God declared him to be righteous.” ^[17]

That word that says he simply,” Believed God” means he was persuaded of, or had confidence in. His believing was credited to him as “Righteousness” right standing with God. Not because of any works that he did, not by him leaving his home or offering up his son later, but by having faith. Faith will lead to works, as James states “Faith without works is dead.” We must be very clear; Abraham was not made right or justified by his works. Our works will distinguish between a “Dead faith and a Living faith” but we must not be confused that we are made right by works. We are justified not by works but by faith.

    Dead faith is one that is only in our intellect, and James states that even the devils have that kind of faith. They believe in one God, You believe in God, the devils believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, you also believe that. This kind of belief won’t change the devil and it won’t change you.

   A living faith is where we commit our lives to Christ where we give ourselves to him and receive him.

 “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

When you and I come to Christ and we turn from sin and believe he died for our sins and that his blood blots out our sins, and that he will not remember them anymore. When you believe this and say Lord I believe this is true, you are declared righteous! For one reason you trusted God’s word! You could not save yourself, you leaned on his promise and accepted it.

Rom 4:4  When people work, their wages are not a gift. Workers earn what they receive.

Rom 4:5  But people are declared righteous because of their faith, not because of their work.

If you say I want to be saved by my works then you will not be getting a gift from God you will get wages, and you better come up to his standard ( this is impossible to do) This is why the Pharisees could not experience salvation they wanted their works to save them and the prostitutes and murderers had no good works to lean on they needed the gift!

Lord don’t let me lean on my good works but let me always lean and trust in the power of what you did for me at Calvary!

At the beginning of Chapter 4 Paul shows us how Abraham was justified BY faith PRIOR to the law, NOT by works. Basically you can’t call God’s salvation a gift if you have to work for it, no if you have to work for it’s called wages.

Now in the previous Chapter we looked at what this free gift really means. Salvation is given to all not everyone accepts to receive it. I love what Paul quotes David as saying, “Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed are those whose sin the Lord will never count against them.”(vs 7-8)

How we want to be the one’s who are called blessed, as in “good job, Sam. I’m proud of you” but in this case I wonder if all (meaning the entire human race) should be considered blessed because our sins have been washed away!!!

Paul says in the next verse that this is for everyone and there is no limitation to who it is offered to but it is only “credited” through faith.

I love the wording in verse 12 talking about Abraham who was clearly the “father” of the Jew, the circumcised, but also the “father” of those who “follow in the footsteps of faith.” What a poetic phrase “the footsteps of faith.” Lord, help me follow those footprints.

“It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he wold be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.” (vs. 13) Abraham preceded the law by many years so it would have been impossible for Abraham to become righteous by following it so therefore the only way Abraham could have become righteous and for that matter anyone is through faith.

Paul makes an even stronger point that “For those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, because the law brings wrath.” Wow, did you catch that. Paul says those who don’t approach God through faith, miss the promise. NOT GOOD!

Here’s the thing and it seems Paul make this point. If the promise could be attained by what we did then it wouldn’t be fair because it wouldn’t be possible for everyone to receive it, but in God’s perfect plan the promise comes “by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all…”

Paul then gives a great example of what faith looked like in Abraham’s life. I would venture to say that a good working definition of faith would be found in verse 21 “being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” If only we could live our lives in this fully persuaded way that would be a life lived in faith. Ultimately this is what it takes to have righteousness credited to us. We must believe in God’s plan that “He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (vs. 24)

This being true what is the only logical response?

Paul does say that there is a benefit to being Jewish, not that it gave them a foot up or a “head start” on earning Grace but that they were in possession of an invaluable treasure the “very words of God” (vs. 2). That’s pretty important!

In the next few verses (3-8) Paul is trying to clear something up that I must confess I’m not totally clear on. Something about false logic they were being accused of saying “Let us do evil that good may result.” Which to Paul was absurd.

Now Paul goes further in equalizing the human condition before God. “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.” (vs. 9) To which we can say Amen! He then supports his position by quoting from the Old Testament a lengthly passage stating such which could be seen as referring back to the idea that the Jewish benefit was that they had the words of God and in them God says they are all sinners and that non are righteous apart from Him on their own. In fact they are not only “not righteous” they are wicked.

Now if their is any confusion left that Paul clearly states that righteousness does NOT come from keeping the law. “Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by observing the law;” (vs 20a)

Paul does not leave us confused as to where righteousness comes, who provided it, who needs it and how to get it.

“This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood–to be received by faith.” (vs. 22-25)

I had to quote the whole thing because it’s so important. This passage really needs to be read as a complete thought that Paul clearly intended it to be. Frequently we only hear verse 23 that makes the point that all have sinned but a closer reading will reveal that yes all have sinned but in the same sentence all are justified “freely” by his grace through Christ’s redemptive work. Now here’s the deal Paul has been making the point for chapters that all are in need of the Gospel of Jesus and here he states that all have been justified IF they will only believe and receive this by faith.

This is one of the most shocking things to me. I have heard it said that no one will “go to hell” because of their sins, because all sins have been forgiven. Instead people will experience eternal separation from God because the reject the salvation offered. In the same way, but much more importantly, that coupons are mailed to every home, not everyone chooses to utilize them to save money.

What Paul is saying is that this offer is paid in full by Jesus alone and stands waiting for us to accept it. Period. He then follows this up with “Where, then is boasting? It is excluded.” (vs. 27) None of us are experiencing the Kingdom of God based on our own merit we experience the Kingdom because of Grace and faith.

What an offer? What a tragedy to not accept it and live our lives in eternal gratefulness to Jesus for what he has done. What a strange Kingdom where the King laid down his life to give his Kingdom to his creation.

Isa 64:6 “ We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away.”  The King James says, “All our righteousness is as filthy rags.”  

 Many times we state common phrases in a church setting, and they begin to lose their true meaning because we assume we already know what is being said. I would like to pause for a moment and reflect on this:

-         My pedigree has no value, I am a sinner!

-         The good things I do, do not change the fact, “I am a sinner”

-         My status in the church does not change the truth, “I am a sinner”

-         How you view me does not change the reality, “I am a sinner”

-         My tenure in the body of Christ has no bearing on this “I am sinner”

   This morning I reflect all over again that nothing I can do, can bring righteousness. I must have him!! It is only through Christ I have righteousness!

    Paul is laying out the fundamental, foundational principal of our salvation “WE ARE ALL SINNERS” he calls out the Jews and states, just because you have the law don’t think this makes you any different! In verse eleven he states:

 “For God does not show favoritism”

Sin is the great equalizer it separates us from God period! Here you begin to see that Jews saw themselves as better then the gentiles and this subtle comparison if not confronted would become an enormous stumbling block. This silent belief becomes spiritual pride and spiritual pride is a “KILLER”

Jas 4:6  But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.

We must see ourselves as sinners that desperately need Christ, this is where “Grace shows up! When you read chapter one and sa the list of sexual perversions that were there, did you feel capable of committing those? Or did you say “I would never do such a thing.” “Those folks…. were in a different category of sin, I would never go to that depth.” This is the same words the elder brother spoke in the parable of the “Prodigal Son” yet it was the prodigal son that experienced the fellowship of his father. He understood he did not deserve his father’s fellowship. He experienced grace that comes through humility.

   I am praying that the Holy Spirit would demolish all perceived righteousness! Lord! Let me have the same eyes that you have! Not eyes that compare myself to others.

His fellowship is a free gift. His Holy Spirit is a free gift! His salvation is a free gift! His righteousness is a free gift!

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life”

    Thank-you Father for saving a filthy sinner like me! I have nothing to boast about except you! I don’t deserve you fellowship but you gave this gift to me! Oh thank-you Jesus your love is better then life itself.

Last week I did not mention the second half of Chapter 1, verses 18-32 and that was for two reasons. One was that I ran out of time and the blog was too long, second is that I feel that passage relates more to the beginning of Chapter 2 than it does to Paul’s introduction in the beginning of Chapter 1. Remember in the original texts there were no chapter markers, the chapter markers were put in place by the translators to help us navigate quickly.

Verse 1 “You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.”

This is an incredibly important verse and is the connector between what I believe is simply Paul’s description of the human condition without God in the end of Romans 1. Paul gives us what the world looks like without the light of Christ. Without Christ foolishness seems wise, light seems dark, truth confused with a lie. In this condition men will naturally pursue things that are contrary to nature and God himself. Think about things we do when we are without light…have you ever walked down the hall with your arms stretched out in front of you feeling your way around, shuffling your feet trying to avoid stubbing your toe and running into things. That’s what living life in darkness looks like, it’s crazy. Imagine living life that way when the lights were on! Someone who sees the light will be able to navigate much easier.

I want to state for the record I don’t think Paul’s purpose was to create a list of sins for the Roman Church to avoid but rather to give an objective history that human beings are hopelessly lost without Christ. Here’s the deal, if you think this is a list of sins to try to avoid, by your own efforts with intention of becoming pleasing to God, you may say to yourself, well I’m doing good on 8 of the 9 so at least I’m better than Joe Smoe over there and get puffed up with a false sense of righteousness. I want to make it clear that I’m not saying God is somehow okay with the things Paul mentions, no, God hates these things. The point however is not to inform people of a list of things God hates, it is to demonstrate the wretchedness of the human condition, that’s all of our condition’s without Christ.

Thus the connector Scripture in 2:1 where he says “Therefore”, meaning given what I have just demonstrated that humankind is lost without Jesus, don’t get excited and start judging your neighbor because no matter how much knowledge of God’s likes or dislikes one might have, we are still lost without Jesus.

So when our neighbor down the street chose to get smashed on New Year’s Eve, we have no right to feel superior or judge because we went to church and prayed the New Year in. No, he’s doing what is natural for someone without Christ, someone without light will make some pretty bad decisions in the dark. The opposite is true, the person who made a Christ centered choice was just naturally doing what someone should do when they are living in the light.

I wish I could phrase this right…People aren’t better because they made a good choice and avoided running into the couch when the lights are on. It was the light that shined on the obstacle that should get the credit. Neither is God’s purpose for us to run around in the dark, when light is available, to demonstrate our superior memory of where the obstacles are. No we are to live in the light, and make decisions based on that light but never fooling ourselves that we would be somehow okay and able to make it if the light was gone.

That said, we must live our lives in accordance to the light. If we choose to pursue a lifestyle ignoring the light we will experience consequences. Just as if I walked around in daylight with my eyes closed. In Romans 2:6-8 Paul says that each individual will be rewarded or payed according to their actions. Ultimately eternal life for one, and wrath and anger for the other. That’s serious folks!

To me Paul just continues to hammer down this theme that there is no salvation other than living our lives in the light through faith in Christ Jesus. He had to take extra time to explain to the trap the Jewish Christians experienced because they had previous instruction with the Law of Moses. In verses 17-28 Paul tries to remind them that just because they have the law “the embodiment of knowledge and truth” doesn’t mean they can fulfill it or please God through it. Please don’t get confused here in verse 25, when Paul says “circumcision has value if you observe the law” the rest of the verse should clearly indicate that it is impossible to follow the law. In the end Paul says that the person who is pleasing to God is the one who is following him from the inside, which may mean Spirit led or continually led through life following the light given by the Spirit. A “circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.”

Both groups rightly believed that Jesus was the true Messiah but the Jews struggling with their old prejudices were having a hard time accepting the Gentiles’ claim to equal privilege in the Church. The Jews were continuing to be adamant that the Gentile believers also be circumcised, thus Paul writes to clarify.

According to Wikipedia an interesting historical fact is that the church in Rome was probably founded by Jewish Christians or Jews who had embraced Jesus as Messiah. These Jewish Christians spread their belief to the Gentiles but remained in leadership of the Church. In AD 49 the Jews who did not believe in Jesus and the Jewish Christians were involved in such bitter fighting over whether Jesus was the Messiah that both groups were expelled from Rome. This expulsion left the Gentile Christians to take over. As you can imagine, it’s one thing to accept the Gentile Christians’ belief in Jesus; it’s another to allow them to be full equal partners in the church given the Jewish Christians’ heritage as the exclusive “people of God.”  In 54 AD the Jews and Jewish Christians returned to Rome and encountered a vastly different Church. So the problem that this book addresses may have been that the old Jewish Christian leadership wanted to clean things up by requiring the Gentile believers to be circumcised which confused the Gospel of Jesus with Judaism.

Paul then begins the book of Romans by clearly stating he was not only a believer but a servant of Christ Jesus. He supports his belief in Christ Jesus stating that the messiah was promised in the Holy Scriptures which would have been important to the Jewish believers. Paul in verse 3 makes a theological comment about the nature of Jesus as being both fully human as a descendant of David and also fully God by his resurrection.

The statement “Jesus Christ our Lord” was how the early believers referred to Jesus which was equivalent in their minds to the Old Testament Shema or foundational statement of faith found in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”

So Paul makes the statement that Jesus is Lord, the promised messiah, the one true God in flesh. This does not allow for any belief that Paul thought Jesus was just a good man or a great prophet with some good ideas about life. No Paul clearly thought that Jesus was the Savior of the World the fulfillment of all of God’s promises about salvation.

Next Paul clearly states that this Salvation was not just for the Jews but he states in verse 5 that this message was to “call all the Gentiles to faith and obedience for his name’s sake.” This letter was to establish all believer’s equal rights in Christ, both Jewish and Gentile.

I also wanted to mention that when Paul states we are called to belong to Jesus given the audience he is writing to he is expanding the definition of “people of God.” Now the chosen ones were all who believe. This is clearly in contrast to the Old Testament teaching that only the children of Israel were considered the “people of God.” Here Paul declares to the rest of us the amazing opportunity afforded to us by the gospel of Jesus.

In a world where it is nearly impossible to change one’s status or class, Christ offers s something much more than riches or fame but the opportunity to be a child of God. (1 Peter 2:10)

I also want to share this cool verse that gives Paul’s desire to come and visit the church at Rome “that I may impart some spiritual gift” as well as “that I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” This appears to be a great reason for fellowship amongst believers: the sharing and imparting of spiritual gifts and mutual encouragement of the faith. Hopefully this semester our small groups will reflect Paul’s desire as we meet with each other. Let us come prepared to both impart and be encouraged by each other.

“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.” Romans 1:16

“The righteous will live by faith” will be one of the foundational themes throughout this book and means that both the Jew and Gentile believers will approach and receive God’s salvation through Jesus the same way: BY FAITH.

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