To Sin or To Love

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

TO SIN OR TO LOVE

Rom 7:7-12

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."   8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead. 9 Once I was alive apart from law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. 10 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. 11 For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. 12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

NIV

Well, at least we know the temptation that Paul fell prey to and that he was very aware of his sin. But to say the law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good makes it very clear that God’s intent for the law was to bring Paul and us to that point of repentance because we cannot find life in the law. How can something that brings death be so holy? How can a command of God that brings us death be righteous and good? It would seem simple enough because the law came from God. However, it also appears right to understand the law was put in force to show us we cannot find righteousness under the law. If God had never given the law, we would never know that we are guilty of sin. Yet, was that the reason we came to Jesus? From Paul’s testimony of his conversion, he did not come to Jesus because he was a dead man walking under the law, but because Jesus appeared to him and spoke to him. Luke tells us in the acts of the Apostles that after Saul received his sight at the hands of Ananias, he spent a few days with the disciples, those who followed Jesus. When did Paul get this truth about the law bringing death and Jesus bringing us life? When we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we were not ever concerned about any law from God, in fact, we were not even concerned about God. Certainly, there are religious people aware of God, even worship him, and are conscience of sin at some level, knowing some about the commands of God, yet are still dead men walking because they have not died to sin and have been born again into the Spirit. The law, the commandments, can lead us to awareness of sin, but cannot save us from death, in fact, it brings us death. Why then would we want to live under the law? It does not make sense at all to live under that which brings us death. Yet, it appears some in the church today want to establish their own set of laws or rules to live by and may be confused. True, we must make every effort to live righty, to live in the Spirit, to live as a born-again believers in Jesus. This means we do not go looking for ways to sin but look for ways to live in the Spirit and to live a life of love. That is the greatest command that Jesus tells us to love God with our whole being and to love others as he loves us. If we live in love, that is primary, and loving each other will eliminate or eradicate many sins. If we love each other then we would never do any harm to one another or do something that would cause another to sin. That seems simple enough, but it seems we cannot even do that faithfully, or perfectly, so again, we are in desperate need of the grace of God. Everything in this life brings us to our need for the grace of God, for Jesus. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing, no works are good enough, no life is good enough, no amount is spirituality is good enough, and no abiding by rules and regulations is good enough, although they are not all bad either, they simply do not enhance the grace of God. Faith, hope, and love are the greatest attributes, but the greatest of these is love. 

Dying to Live

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

DYING TO LIVE

Rom 7:1-6

7:1 Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2 For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3 So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. 4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. 5 For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.  

NIV

Paul's focus here is directed to the Jews in this church in Rome for he speaks to the men who know the law. This is not to say that some Jews were not of the opinion that the Gentiles ought to study the law so that can be better believers, much like the Jews that traveled to the area of Galatia telling the Gentile believers they needed to become Jews first, get circumcised, then they could accept Jesus as the Messiah. However, that is a conjecture on our part and what we know is Paul is telling those who know the law that it no longer has any authority over them. Again, the law itself has not been canceled for it still holds the key to showing us our sins. If there was no law, Jesus canceled it, then we would never know about sin. We would be living in ignorance and be condemned. This analogy of marriage reveals the need to reckon ourselves dead to sin. The old self within us was a dead man walking because we married to sin. That is the importance of dying and being born again. They could not divorce themselves from the law, and neither could we. But when we die to sin, we are no longer under the authority of the law, but now we belong to God, and he has given us the right to be called his children. This is an either-or situation, as we cannot be adulterers having a relationship with the law and with Christ. How can a dead man be married to the law? Because we died with Christ and have been raised to a new life, we must live according to this new life in Christ. We must be careful not to create any of our own laws, which are seen as rules and regulations that we might believe are based on scripture. In other words, living by the do’s and don’ts of Christianity. It is not for us to judge others, but over the years we have heard believers make outlandish statements about if we drink or smoke or dance or go to the movies, etc., we are not truly Christians. Back to the law, we must go in order to be saved seems to be the rule of thumb. How is this possible since we have been saved by grace, and grace alone? Of course, we do not want to go around finding ways to displease God, however the only way we can please him is to believe in the one he sent, and that also is the only doing, the only work God requires, and he prepared that in advance for us because before the foundation of the earth Christ died for our sins. That can be difficult to wrap our mind around, but it is fact, and we do not live in assumptions, but facts, because we have the word of God, the one we can count on being full of truth. Of course, in the reality of the flesh, the Lamb of God was slain some two thousand years ago, at the exact right time of God. However, because time does not exist in the heavenly realm, the Lamb was slain before the world's creation, before time began. Nevertheless, the point is that we live in Christ, being slain ourselves, dying to sin, and being raised into this new eternal life in Christ. We died to live. 

Work or Retire

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

WORK OR RETIRE

Rom 6:19-23

19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

NIV

Well, there it is, plain and simple. We get paid wages for the work we do on the side or in the throws of sin. We earn the wage of death, which is what we will earn as long as we are working for evil. We do have to recognize that working for evil is a lifestyle and is different than failing to be perfect. We are still captive, in a scene to the flesh we were born in, being a member of Adam’s race. But we no longer work for evil, we have become unemployed. There is nothing for us to work for in regard to this free gift from God. That is why it is a gift, given freely without us having to earn it by doing any work whatsoever. Being unemployed is a relaxing time in our lives, In fact, we have retired from the workforce of evil and we do not have to ever go back to work. We can bask in the rays of the Son, relaxing, and confident as we opened our gift from God through faith in Jesus, we will never be asked to give it back, this gift is ours to keep and it is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our lord. However, there is that concept of being slaves to God. Because we are slaves to God, that means he is our Lord and Master which, in human terms means he owns us and is completely in control of our lives. We are not free to do whatever we want. We cannot jump unless God tells us to. We should not be doing anything unless God tells us to. But at the same time, we need to be doing what he commands us to do. It is not work, but obedience that is the result of the gift. In order words, it is impossible to attain or reap holiness by going back to work and becoming employed by good deeds. It is not that we cannot do good works, but the greatest work we could ever do is believe in the one God sent, Jesus. We are fully aware of what Paul said in this letter to the Ephesians about God having prepared beforehand, in advance, for those created in Christ Jesus to do good works. However, that is also in the context of not being saved by works, so we cannot boast that our salvation came to us because of some work we do. The greatest work or the work that God requires of us is to believe in the one he sent, Jesus. Our work is believing and sometimes believing can be work, especially when we are going through a difficult time. It is back to the simplicity of faith. It is through this faith that we reap holiness and eternal life in Christ Jesus. But, again, we need to be mindful that as slaves we are at the Lord’s beck and call. We are here for his purpose, not ours, and we are to act on his behalf, doing what he calls us to do for the benefit of his kingdom. This might be a little different than doing something or doing good works for the benefit of a church, although we would think most churches have the mission of benefiting the kingdom of God, but that may or may not be totally true in all cases. Nevertheless, we can rest in his love, his gift, and live that wonderful life of retirement. 

Whose the Master

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

WHOSE THE MASTER

Rom 6:15-18

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

NIV

Once again, we are reminded that we are not under the law, but under grace. However, we are also being admonished to look to grace not as a free pass to keep living in sin, or willing to look for ways to sin. Of course, our desire is not to sin, but at the same time, we are also subject to temptations. We would be lying if we said we never ever yield to some temptation occasionally. Oh, it is not that we go around looking for ways to sin, and we know that we would not murder, or steal go against one of those laws we still adhere to, like the Ten Commandments. Yet, there are other temptations, like gossip, envy, jealousy, pride, boasting, anger, rage, malice, unforgiveness, greed, and a host of feelings that no one can see, which includes thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. Those emotions just sneak right up on us and before we know it, we get caught up in them, if we are not careful. Again, we know the law shows us those sins, and we do not want to be slaves to them. Our desire is to live for Jesus. Praise God because he has freed us from being under the law, which means we would be condemned, but we are under grace, which means we are declared innocent of all charges, and any case against us is dismissed. However, that does not give us the freedom to do whatever, we are servants of the Most High. Paul says we are now slaves to obedience which leads to righteousness. This is a little confusing in the sense that it appears our righteousness is based on our obedience rather than just because we believe God. It was because Abraham believed God that it was credited to him as righteousness, but that believing led Abraham to do that which God told him to do in regard to sacrificing his son, Isaac. Therefore, as we believe God, we also must be obedient to that which God calls us to do. In addition, we must submit to his working in our lives, being open to that transformation, or being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory. Does that mean we will never sin again? That is doubtful as long as we live on this side of heaven, within this fleshly form. Still, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and alive to Christ. We do not look to sin, we look to Jesus, which is the whole difference between condemnation and righteousness. It makes us think of that song by Bob Dylan, “You got to serve somebody”. “We either serve the devil or we serve God, but we are going to serve somebody”. That is exactly what Paul is saying here. We are slaves to sin, or slaves to believing God, obedience. But we are going to be slaves to one or the other, we cannot serve two masters,

Law or Grace

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

LAW OR GRACE

Rom 6:5-14

5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

NIV

There it is, plain and simple, we are not under the law, but under grace. At the time, we know the law is good, for it serves to show us our transgresses or makes us conscience of our transgresses and therefore our need for Jesus. But we died, at least our old self died and we were born again, just as Jesus told Nicodemus what must happen in order to see the kingdom of God. The old self, the one who was indeed a slave to sin, was a dead man walking and as one who fulfilled the flesh, we could not see the kingdom of God for we were blind, because we were living in the darkness. However, this new life has freed us from the grip of sin, although that does not mean we have attained perfection, or sinlessness, for if we could do that in the earthy body, then there would be no need for Jesus to suffer that cross or the grave. Nevertheless, we are freed from slavery to the master of sin, the devil. So, we count ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. We have to come to the conclusion that sin no longer reigns supreme in our lives, for we have set our path on the way of God. Do we do it perfectly? Unfortunately, we do not live perfect lives, yet because we believe God, we have been rendered as innocent. It is interesting that if we are not under the law, but under grace, then if we are no longer under the law, we have no sin, for it is the law that defines what sin is and shows us and makes us aware of what sin is. Certainly, the law still exists, for Jesus did not cancel the law, but simply fulfilled the law, living a perfect life. Of course, Jesus is God incarnate, and we would expect God to be perfect in every aspect, in all three of his persons, the Father, Son, and Spirit. This is why Jesus is the only perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world, for our sins. He took us from under the condemnation of the law, and put us under his divine grace, for Jesus has set us free, and we are free indeed. Still, that is the requirement that we offer ourselves to God, and not to evil. It is also interesting that it has nothing to do with good deeds or the number of works we do, but it is about grace, and so once again we must always be aware that we should not continue to live for sin, so that God’s grace would increase, but that we are to make every effort to keep ourselves focused on Christ, our hearts and minds ever aimed at Jesus. Of course, we are never going to be perfect, yet we should try to attain it. However, we still come back to this point that the reason sin does not reign within us is that we are not under the law. That would conclude that living under the law causes sin to reign within us. Therefore, in the simplest of terms, because we are under grace, sin is not counted against us for being in Christ, we have fulfilled all the laws, and are under grace instead. Who would want law, when we can have grace? 

The Old and The New

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

THE OLD AND THE NEW

Rom 6:1-4

6:1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

NIV

There are two questions that are raised because of what is said here. The first is the fact that we died to sin, and the second is about our new life. We should deal with being dead to sin first. Surely, we would not want to go back to living a life of sin, which we came from when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. To say that we did not live in sin, or that we were a sinner, we would be calling God a liar, for all of us, have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. However, to say that we are free from all sin, or from ever sinning again would be a lie to ourselves. How then do we justify the fact that we died to sin, but still struggle with sin? Perhaps the difference here is how living in sin and committing sin are defined. Paul says that because we died to sin, we can no longer live in the sinful state we once were before repenting, which is changing the way we think about sin and about God. Once we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we changed how we perceive sin and we no longer desire to live under the influence of the evil one, pursuing our every passion. Because we died from that type of lifestyle and changed the course of our lives by living for Jesus instead, we are dead to that old life and alive to our new life. This then is the second aspect spoken about here, our new life. We died with Christ, only to be raised into a new life with Christ. Is then this new life in the here and now, or is Paul referring to the new eternal life we will be raised in? It would seem right to think that if we died with Christ in this present life we would be raised into a new life in this present time. Both these actions are a result of our accepting Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We were transformed from a life in sin to a life in Christ. Our completely new life includes an entirely new approach and a completely different way of thinking and focus. Once we were focused on self-fulfillment, but we died from that focus, so now we are focused on Jesus, and doing that which he has called us to be and do. Once we were a child of the world, but we died, and were reborn, or born again as a child of God. We were transformed from that old creation living into a new creation life. Praise God for our new life. 

Rendered Righteous

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

RENDERED RIGHTEOUS

Rom 5:18-21

18 Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. 20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

NIV          

This is sort of the conclusion of this argument, yet there is still more to come regarding salvation coming to us through faith and faith alone. Paul makes it clear that it was because of the first man, Adam, that sin has come into our lives. Many denominations have made a distinction between original and personal sin. This original sin is what we are born with because of the one man. This is where we can agree that not a single person on the earth who has ever lived, is living, and will ever live, has any righteousness, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Paul says this is the result of the one man. Is that the original or our personal sin? Is there a real difference? Can we ask forgiveness for the original sin we were born with and thus not have to worry about our personal sin? How can that be, as sin is sin, no matter what type it is? This would also apply to all sin, whether we hate someone, which would mean not loving them, which Jesus equates to murder, or we gossip, which seems harmless in a sense, both are sins, equally making us guilty of disobedience to God, and require repentance, which is simply changing the way we think, and looking to Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin. For as we were already condemned by the one man, we are now set free from that penalty of death, by the one man, Jesus, who gives us life. It is by grace, the gracious act of God, that Jesus brought us eternal life. We cannot earn it, make it more than a gift, by working for it, or by trying to pay it back through our good deeds. This is not to say, we should not do good things for the kingdom of God as a response to the love of God. Most of us believers are involved in service to the kingdom in one way or another. It is what we do, but it is simply from our love for God that we do what we do. It has nothing to do with enhancing our eternal life which is a free gift of God. However, as Paul also makes it clear, we will not ever be free from sin on this side of heaven and thus God’s grace will always increase because of our continual sin. We know the next statement very well about sinning so grace may abound, and we will deal with that in time, but for now, let us rejoice that we are under the grace of God and that through Jesus Christ we have been designated as righteous. Although many translate the Greek word kathistemi as made, the more wooden translation would be designated or rendered. Thus, we may not actually be righteous, or made righteous, but because we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and we are in him and he in us, God renders us as righteous. We can praise him for he has declared, or rendered us righteous, not by our works, but by our faith in Jesus.