Monday, December 22, 2014

Romans 9

Read Romans 9

While taking a class on Romans I had four professors tell me, "Yeah when you get to chapters 9-11 of Romans you're going to just pass over it because we can't figure out what Paul's saying in relation to everything else." And we did just that. Chapters 9-11 have trees which just don't fit into the forest that is the book of Romans. But let's just look at the trees.

Chapter 8 finishes up with Paul writing about the inseparable love God has for us, his children. Paul begins with, "I'm not lying, I'm being completely honest with what I'm writing, as God as my witness."

Paul writes of how the Jews are damned because of their lack of faith in Christ, and how he wishes he could take their place so that they could be saved. Why is this? Paul's a Jew believe it or not, and he cares for his people, which is why I think chapter 9 is written the way it is and still fits in the theology of free will and not election. In verses 4 and 5 we see that Paul thinks that the Israelites should have grace because of what they had in the past, almost seeming as if Paul is still struggling with his faith, that he thinks that someone deserves grace. But he knows that no one deserves grace, as he pointed out in Romans 1-3, all have sinned, and in Romans 5 where he says the sin of 1 is enough to condemn, and those two tell us no one deserves grace, because if they deserved grace they wouldn't need it.

Paul continues on with Israel, writing that those who come from Israel do not always belong to Israel. This is the idea that we, Christians, are the New Israel. Those who make up the New Israel are not (always) Jewish by birth, but they are (always) Jewish by the promise. By the promise found in Genesis 12.1-3 we are the offspring of Abraham. The promise that says, "I will make you into a great nation, and the world will be blessed by you" (Mike paraphrasing). The fulfillment of that promise is Jesus, the blessing to the world, the savior of all. And it is by and through him that we are counted as offspring of Abraham and children of God.

Here's where things get disputed with free will and election, and this is my two cents worth. Take it or leave it but this is what I pull out of the scripture.

"And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls--she was told, "The older will serve the younger." As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." Romans 9.10-13

Here's what I see. Paul is writing that Esau was elected, by God, to serve Jacob, his younger brother which goes against the culture of the time. What we see in the text is Jacob steals from Esau, twice, and then runs so he doesn't get killed. He gets married, has lots of kids, then has to run away from his father in law back to his home land where he ran away from his brother, who still lives there. Growing up Esau did the hunting and Jacob did the house work, showing that both served each other as their gifts allowed. And when Jacob returns after many years we see that 1: he has been blessed by God with wealth and family and 2: So has Esau. Then we have no record of Jacob being served or lording over his brother after his return. So here's my question for you: Did God lie and Esau didn't serve Jacob? No, I just proved that they served each other. But also, Jacob ran away after cheating his brother out of his birth right and blessing, so God supports liars and cheaters? No that's against his character. But instead he blessed both brothers, and chose Jacob to establish his line to bless the entire world. As for those he calls, as seen in my logic of the last chapter all are called.

Then there is the last bit there which says, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." This is taken from the prophet Malachi. If we look at the context of where this verse comes from, which we should always do, we see that God is saying through Malachi to Israel, "I gave you every reason to trust me, worship me, and properly offer to me, but you didn't. I loved you and my love made it look like I hate your brother, yet you still can't trust me." Then God goes on to talk about how angry and how he is going to punish his elect. So if that's how God's going to treat those he elected because of their sin, what's the difference between them and the non-elect? I'll stick to grace and Jesus.

I don't mean to belittle the idea of election, but I do not see how it lines up with the character of God. Sure we can sit here and say, "well election is written in the Bible and free will is not," but when we look at the character of God and put things in context I can't see how election works. But that's my thoughts on the matter. We'll continue chapter 9 tomorrow because it is a lot. Enjoy, and I love you all.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Romans 8 part 4

Read Romans 8.31-39

This one is pretty easy. But it's so great. It's all about the love that God has for us.

What can we say in response to the fact that God desires all to come to him? What can we say in response to his adopting us and making us heirs with his only true son? What can we say in response to being seen as holy, righteous, and justified in his sight because of his actions? Should we say that if God is for us who can be against us? How about if God is for us what's the point of standing against us?! He didn't even spare his own son for us while we were still his enemies, how will he not stand up for us and back us up when hard times come? Better yet how would he not give us all things? Look at Matthew 6.25-34, God takes care of the birds and the grass, how much more would he take care of us?

Who can bring a charge against those in the Kingdom of God?
It's God who justifies us, who can charge those he vouches for?
Who can condemn us?
Jesus himself, the man who died and rose again intercedes on our behalf.
Who can separate us from the love of Jesus?
Are hard times from our fellow man, the economy, or nature itself going to 
separate us from the love of him who is above all?

Nothing will separate us from his love!

In life or death we are with Jesus who makes us more than just conquerors over all of these things. We are with him who owns them.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come nor things from the past, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation in heaven hell or earth shall ever separate us from the love of God that has been shown and given to us through his son Jesus the Christ!

In Jesus we are sons of God. Being sons of God we will suffer. Because we suffer we shall inherit the glory of God. And by inheriting the glory of God we will receive his all encompassing love. This is what Paul gives us in Romans 8.

Next up, Romans 9.

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Romans 8 part 3

Any sort of regularity in my schedule is non-existent. So sorry for the lack of posts.

DISCLAIMER: THIS PASSAGE HOLDS A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC WHICH I SHALL GIVE MY TWO CENTS WORTH. YOU CAN DISAGREE WITH IT IF YOU WANT BUT DON'T TRY TO SHOVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE DOWN MY THROAT BECAUSE YOU CAN READ WORDS SUCH AS ELECTION AND PREDESTINATION. I CAN TOO. GET OVER YOURSELF.

Read Romans 8.18-30

In the previous passage we saw that by being in Jesus we become heirs like him with our inheritance being the glory of God which we looked at a bit. We also saw that in order to receive his glory we have to suffer. Paul begins then by saying that the suffering which we have and will have is nothing compared to the glory that we shall receive. This glory that we shall receive shall reveal us as children of God, leaving no doubt who's we are. Creation is waiting for this. I think this is a really interesting idea and want to take a moment to go through my ideas on this, most of which might be wrong.

"For creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willing, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." Romans 8.19-21

Creation is waiting for the children of God to be glorified with God's glory. This tells me that creation is able to tell God from man. I got a cat, which is a part of creation. If I go to him with my own glory saying, "Look how great I am because of what I've done and my own glory! You can't bite me!" he'll still bite me because he's demon possessed. But if I have the glory of God he will recognize that. When the glory of God will be revealed in his children just as it was with Adam (looking at the Luke genealogy of Jesus we see that he claims that Adam is a son of God, also discussed earlier) who was able to interact with nature and creation in a way that we just can't. We try to control creation and yet we are so desperately dependent on it and can't control it because of the brokenness of creation, including ourselves.

In verse 20 we see that it says that creation was subjected to futility by him who subjected it. I've heard it said, "Well God subjected creation to futility so that Jesus could come." So God made Adam and Eve sin? "No." Those two answers don't match up. Did God have a hand in subjecting creation to futility? I'd say yes, but in this way: Get set everything up, gave man a commandment, don't eat that else you die and everything breaks. Either trust God or don't is what it comes down to. He knew the consequences of giving them that choice. He knew at some point someone would not make the choice for him and everything would get broken anyway. Who? When? He didn't know, but he knows the outcome of every possible decision that we have, are, can, and will ever make. He just doesn't know what decision we will make, but he already knows the outcome of it and all the other possible decisions we could have made. So by setting up the system of "Choose me or yourself and if you choose yourself you die and everything breaks" God set up the dominoes to subject creation to uselessness. God himself did not push the dominoes over, he left that to man because in God there is no evil, and pushing those dominoes is evil, it's against his commandment and will, done of the flesh. God doesn't contradict himself.

From there we look at the last two words of 20 and all of 21. The main thing to remember during these three verses is that we, humans, are a part of creation just as trees, plants, rocks, animals, and atoms. Creation was subjected to futility, as seen above in a way by God, because he had a plan that he hoped would work, knew would work as well because hope doesn't disappoint, that all of creation will be freed from the bondage of sin and will obtain the freedom that we children of God have through the glory that we have/will inherit.

Let's get real for a second. Why do natural disasters happen? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there death and war and famine and disease and cancer? Sin. All of these things are a part of creation, from the mutated cells that cause cancer to the tectonic plates that cause earthquakes and tsunamis. And all these are a part of creation and are broken and corrupted because of sin. And it all waits eagerly for the children of God to be revealed because when that happens they shall be set free and there shall be no more death, pain, or tears.

Moving on we see a continuation of these ideas and also that we, humans, are also waiting for our revealing and adoption. I consider myself a child of God already. My girlfriend's family does foster care and all the kids call their foster parents "mom" and "dad." They're not really their mom and dad, they aren't even in the adoption process. But if they did go through it, it would take a while. Right now, from what I see in this scripture, we are in the foster care system. God has taken us in and is in the process of adopting us and we wait eagerly for the paper work to go through. They paperwork may go through when we die, judgment day, or sometime before or in between. Who knows? All I know is that even though I'm waiting, I'm still a child of God. And I hope in that glory, and as seen earlier hope doesn't disappoint, and by this hope we are saved (v. 24). Paul reinforces the idea that this hope isn't something that is in what is seen, but what we wait for. I wait for the glory of God, and I hope for it, and hope that my hope is not in vain. I hope in Jesus and his works, and by this hope I am saved. And I will find one day that is does not disappoint but instead is fulfilled.

All of this is because of the Spirit that we now have.

And not only that, but the Spirit also intercedes for us in prayer when we don't know how to pray or what to pray for. God, through the Spirit (I believe) searches our hearts to find what is on the mind of the Spirit. The Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God. This for me means that God examines us, what's on our mind and heart. When we pray sometimes we don't know what to pray for and the Spirit, God himself, intercedes for us as God desires. Since God loves us and always wants what's best for us he will intercede as long as what we have on our hearts is inline with his will: i.e. his name being glorified all over the world.

Then 29 and 30 is where it gets really controversial.

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And whose he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

Let's work backwards. God glorifies those he justified. Those he justified are the ones who have faith in him who are the ones that he called. Those that he called are the ones that he predestined to be called. And those that he predestined he did so that they might be the firstborn among many. And those that he predestined were ones that he foreknew before they even existed.

Many that I know that believe in election like to use this verse to support their claim. That's fine, I just don't see it how they do. My big question is who does God know beforehand? Everyone because we see in Colossians 1.16 "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth..." No one can come into existence except by God, and for him to create them he must have known them beforehand. And the way that the verse in Romans is written it seems as if God predestined everyone he foreknew, meaning God has predestined everyone. Now this is getting into Rob Bell Love Wins territory so I'll show that that's not what I'm saying. We all have been predestined to be formed into the image of Jesus so that we might be the firstborn of many brothers. Just because we have been predestined to be conformed in the image of Christ doesn't mean that we automatically will or are. I see it as a choice because the text itself shows, by the words "might be" that we can choose or not choose to share the gospel and evangelize despite our predestination. So if God predestined someone else that we're supposed to talk to, and we decide not to and that person doesn't hear the gospel the way it would make sense to them then despite their predestination they don't accept Jesus. Then if they're still saved we have even bigger problems. You can be saved without accepting Jesus meaning we should do whatever we want because it doesn't matter if we accept him or not. Or God must dictate all of our actions so that those he chose to save will receive the gospel and be saved. But if that was the case then all must be saved because God foreknew all and Paul is wrong when he wrote "might be." Now some will argue about verses from chapter 9 which from what I read they take out of context and we will look at later.

But as for what is found in these verses of chapter 8 this is what I see. I challenge you to look at it on your own and see what God tells you. Maybe I'm wrong and those who believe in election are right. I'd be alright with that I don't see this doctrine as important to my salvation just like if the bread and wine actually turn into the body and blood of Jesus. But look and see what you can see.

Tomorrow we look at a less controversial issue which makes everyone feel all warm and fuzzy.


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Air of Glory

Read Romans 8.12-17

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. -Romans 8.18

To start this passage we go forward to the beginning of the next. Start at the end if you will.
In the movie "The Departed" there is a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio has a line where he points out a cop by his, "Air of scumbag entitlement," I believe. In this particular passage that we're looking at we see that we are "Heirs with Christ of the glory of God." This means we shall inherit the glory of God. In Ephesians 1.11 we see that in Jesus we have an inheritance with him. That inheritance is the glory of God.

Here are some facts that we know about the glory of God
-To behold the glory of God in it's fullness leads to death (Exodus 33.20)
-The glory of God coming off of us scares people (Exodus 34.29-30)
-Being in the presence of God we absorb his glory [Best way I could think to phrase that] (Exodus 34.29)

This is what we see that we inherit from God.

We inherit this if we are children of God. We are children of God is we put to death the deeds of the flesh and are instead led by the Spirit.
Through our death and to sin and life from Christ, we have received a new Spirit, and this is a Spirit of adoption, not a spirit of fear and slavery. By this Spirit we are able to come to God and call him by the most intimate name any God allows his followers to call him: Daddy. How many other religions have their own God say, "Call me Daddy. Call me whatever you want. Be intimate. Be close. I AM WHO I AM and I AM your God, I AM your Father, I AM your friend, I AM what you need me to be." I know no other religion that has a god which gives us ownership over them. God invites us to make him our own God, which when we think about it, that fact makes the phrase, "My personal Lord and Savior" much more meaningful. He is MY savior. MY king. MY God. MY Father.

You remember back when you were kids and always tried to one up your friends by saying your dad was better than theirs? Imagine doing that with God. Always bragging about him. Always talking about him. Always telling people about how great he is and how their missing out. Then invite them to join the family.

This Spirit which we have received allows us to do this. And the Spirit itself bears witness of our adoption, reminding us that we are adopted, that we don't need to worry, that we don't need to be afraid of a master, but instead that we have a father that's speaking to us and that we should listen to. We have a Spirit that tells us we are Children of God. And if we are children of the King of Kings then we are heirs of something, but only provided that we suffer. To suffer means that we are our with our faith. One who only goes to church on Sundays and that's their Christian duty is not going to suffer for their faith. In the ministry I'm a part of one of our students told us how she gets made fun of by her friends for going to, "Some stupid Bible study." That tells me that she's telling people about her faith. And she gets made fun of it. That's a form of suffering. I want to see us bring in a biology student who fights with their professors over their faith. To suffer for your faith means you don't keep it to yourself. You be bold with it. And when you are bold you will be glorified with Jesus, being and heir with him. This leads to the conclusion that our inheritance is the glory of God.

When we suffer for our faith and for being children of God, we are given the glory of God, and reflect him, having to draw near to him in our times of hardship. And our sufferings of this present time are nothing, don't even deserve to be compared to, the future glory which we shall receive.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Romans 8 part 1

Read Romans 8.1-11

So this is a bit late in coming, busy doing work for school lately trying to do a theology based on Amos which is fun but time consuming. Anyways, let's get started. Romans 8 is one of the deepest chapters we can read. I know I said something similar about Romans 6, an while chapter 6 is difficult, chapter 8 is deep. So let's dive in.

We left off with Romans 7 in which Paul gets horrible confusing, but ultimately says, "Even though we're saved and know what sin is, we're still going to sin because we know what sin is." Paul ended 7 on a fairly depressing note, but chapter 8 begins with one of the greatest phrases we may ever hear, and it truly speaks grace in it's entirety.

"There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

What Paul says here is, "Yes, we are still sinners, and yes, sin still leads to death. But, though we are still sinners there is no condemnation against us because we are in Christ Jesus!" The Law has been fulfilled in Jesus, and we have died with him and have come alive with him as well. By dying on the cross Jesus had confined sin to the flesh, and we who have died with him are no longer considered according to the flesh but instead by the Spirit, and the Spirit which resides in us now is the Spirit of God himself. But having the Holy Spirit in us, we are then in Jesus. And by being in Jesus we are free from the law of sin and death. 

What this leads to then is that we ourselves fulfill the Law. We are righteous. Not by our own works though, but because we are in Jesus who has already fulfilled the Law. Confusing? Let's think about this.

When I was in Cleveland my parents came up once to visit. One day for lunch we go out to eat with the people that I was staying with. We sat around, ate, talked, got to know each other, and by this point I had lived with these people for a month or two. Afterwards my parents leave and I get a ride back with the people I was staying with. We get back to the house, are sitting around and the wife looks at me and says, "You and your dad have a lot of the same mannerisms." I never noticed before, but how could I? I'm a part of it. An egg never looks around and says, "I'm a part of this balanced breakfast." I couldn't look around and say, "I'm a lot like my dad in actions and speech." But by spending 20 years around my dad, I became like him. In the same way, by being in Christ we grow to be like him without thinking about. But that is only if we are truly in Jesus. 

What I mean by that last statement is this. As Paul writes in Romans 6.1, "Should we continue in sin so that grace may increase? No!" If we continue to purposefully sin trying to please only ourselves then we have not really been saved, we don't know the weight of sin, and we don't have the mind of God with us. But we realize what our vices are, we open ourselves up to Jesus and the Holy Spirit, allowing them to flow through us. We imitate Christ in all we do. We live as if we are saved. This is what it means to truly be in Jesus. 

And by imitating Jesus, we, like him fulfill the Law. But it is not us, as Paul writes in chapter 7, but the Spirit of God working in us. Verse 5 tells us that if we have our mind on things of the flesh: material possessions, sex, money, mind altering substances, etc. then we are still in the flesh. But if we are in the Spirit then our minds are on the things of the Spirit: righteousness, worship, God, the spread of the gospel, the caring to those around us. So I have to ask you this: Are you in the Spirit or the flesh? Lie to yourself if you wish, that's your call. God knows and will judge accordingly. I'm just here to get you to think about it. 

We see in the next verse, 6, that to set our mind on the flesh is death, where as setting our mind on the Spirit is life and peace with God. This is because in the Spirit we may please God, but in the flesh we cannot. 

9-11 ends with us reading that God dwells in us, making us the temple (1 Corinthians 3). If we do not have the Spirit, then we don't belong to God. We're not his children, heirs, disciples, or followers. We are his enemies at that point. But if we are in Christ, then even though our body is dead because of sin, our spirit is alive because of the righteousness of Christ which is given to us. And if we have the Spirit of God in us, then that spirit, which raised Jesus, shall raise us as well.

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

The Law

Read Romans 7

This is one of the most confusing chapters we find in Romans. When we get the point of it, it makes sense. But if we don't then we'll be saying, "Go home Paul, you're drunk!" What it comes down to is Romans 7 gets confusing, depressing, and very round-about. It's all about Paul's take on the Law.

What it comes down to is this: We are no longer under obligation to fulfill the Law, but we fulfill it anyway by being in Jesus.

As long as we are alive we are under the Law, and as we saw in chapter 5, before the Law the people were not bound by the Law, only the commandments of God of listen to him and have good relation with his creation. But, we died didn't we? Isn't that what chapter 6 was about? How we have died to sin and come alive with Jesus? So we have therefore since we are no longer alive, but instead resurrected, we are no longer under the Law. Before we died we belonged to the Law, now we belong to the one who fulfilled the Law: Jesus. Because we have been raised with him we are to bear fruit for God.

If we live in the flesh, we live according to the Law. But if we live in the Spirit, we are no longer under the Law, but the only response to living in the Spirit is to produce fruit for God.

So the big question at the moment is are you busy trying to jump through the hoops? Or are you producing fruit? Are you trying to save yourself or are you acting like you've already been saved?

Then we get into the second half of the chapter, which is where Paul gets confusing. I'll try to make this easy.

-Is the Law sin? No!
-Without the Law though we would not know what sin is.
-The Law is the canon, the measuring stick which says, "This is what is wrong, this is what is right." So without the Law, we wouldn't know what was wrong or right.
-We don't know that we have a desire to sin until we know what sin is. I never wanted to have sex until I knew what sex was. I never wanted to drink until I knew what drinking did. I didn't want to sin until I found out what sin is.
-So there are two forces working in us who are saved. That of the flesh and that of the Spirit.
-The Flesh wants to sin, which is what I don't want to do
-The Spirit doesn't want me to sin, which is what I want to do
-But my body betrays me, and I do what I don't want to do, agreeing with the Law that yes, this thing is bad and the Law is good.
-When my body betrays me and I sin, it is not be who is sinning, but the sin that is in me because in my flesh there is nothing good.
-I cannot do what is good because it is beyond my ability.

There is a war raging in each and every one of us, that sin is crouching at our door, waiting to take hold of us. And no only that buy it's killing us and we can't stop it. Sin dwells in us, making us sin, do evil, and we can't stop.

Who is going to save us from this evil?!

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the Law of God with my mind by with my flesh I serve the Law of sin.

We cannot escape sin on this earth, but God's grace is enough.

We end chapter 7 on that note, and turn the page to chapter 8 where there i hope and good news.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Slavery

Read Romans 6.15-23

So I've been slacking on this blog for a while now, I know. To be honest Romans tends to get difficult to write about at times because it's so thick. I've also had time slipping away from me as well, which is my own fault. But if you could please forgive me, I'll get started and we'll get back into Romans.

The first part of Romans 6 is about how we have died to sin, and come alive in Christ, really good stuff. Now Paul continues in this train of thought and writes about our slavery.

Christians love to talk about "the freedom we have in Christ." We have a number of worship songs and hymns about freedom. We always hear sermons on freedom surrounding the Fourth of July, Veteran's Day, and Memorial Day. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful and respect the men and women who have served our country on behalf of our freedom. My girlfriend's dad being one of them. But even if they didn't answer the call to fight the Nazi's, communists, or terrorists, and the US was taken over by a power other than our own government, I would still be saved by Christ, my true hero, my true savior, the one who gave me true freedom. I may make some people upset with these statements, and as I said I have nothing but respect for the men and women who served this country, but Jesus is my true savior. I could continue to go on a rant about how I'm a Christian before I'm an American, and how the Christian flag should be to the right of a preacher and above the American flag, but maybe I'll save that for a holiday. What truly matters is, I am a child of God, saved by his son from the death that is my sin. And that goes before all else in my life. That there is freedom in Christ from sin.

But there is not only freedom, but also slavery. Which is ironic because slavery is the opposite of freedom right? But this slavery leads to life, not death.

Before we were saved we were dead in our sin and could not help by sin because of the broken nature of man. Paul writes that we are all slaves, either slaves to sin or slaves to God, to righteousness. One is disobedience, the other obedience. Can you guess which is which? But as Paul writes, "Thanks be to God" that even though we were once slaves to sin, we have died to sin and come alive in Jesus, becoming slaves to righteousness. Now why is Paul writing that we need to thank God for going from one slavery to another?

Because our new slavery leads to life. Someone had saved us from an awful, brutal, dehumanizing slavery. And now he asks if we want to work for him. No wages, but the work is easy, and is a natural response from accepting his invitation. Jesus delivered us from the evil one, bringing us into his house, feeding us, clothing us, making sure that, while times get rough, we are still cared for, loved, and taken care of. We may not get everything that we want, but HE WILL TAKE CARE OF US. Not only that, but he brought us back to life. We were dead and he brought us back to life. How can we not work for him?

In verse 19 we see Paul write, "I am speaking to you in human terms, because of your natural imitations." Now he's not calling the Romans stupid here, he's writing that this is difficult stuff to understand, and the best way he can help us understand it is by writing about it like this. And I'm trying to clarify it even more. To sum up the idea of being a slave to righteousness, we are to present our members, our bodies as slaves to righteousness which leads to sanctification, or the process of being made holy, separate from the world. And this is the very thing that Jesus prayed for us in his prayer in John 17, that we would be in the world not of it, that we would be holy, sanctified, slaves to righteousness, not sin.

In Matthew 6 we see Jesus talk about laying treasures in heaven, and how man cannot serve both God and money, but can only choose one. Switch money with sin, though we can say they're one in the same. If all you care about is money, then you're not bound by the laws of God, and he doesn't matter to you. If your primary focus is, "I have to make money" then God means nothing to you nor do his riches. In short, if you're going to be a pagan then be a pagan and don't try to coin yourself off as anything else. But that road leads to death. You have been set free from that road and have become a child of God and there will be fruit from your labors, and you will be rewarded in the end with eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life with him.

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Zombies!

Read Romans 6.1-14

So I've been busy this weekend, which is why posts haven't happened for 4 days. But oh well. Now we get into Romans 6, which rocks.

Paul begins by asking a rhetorical question, meaning one he doesn't expect an answer for. And it is in response to what he was written in chapter 5 about how we have peace with God because of Jesus. We are justified, righteous, and live, all because of Christ, and the grace that we have received outweighs all the sin in our lives.

So Paul asks, in light of this grace, shall we sin that grace may increase?

ABSOLUTELY NOT

This is the strongest way Paul can say no. We have died to sin he says. So how can we live in it when we died in it? It's like drowning. You died in the water, you're not coming back to life. How can you live in it then? You can't because you're dead to it. Why? Because we have been baptized into Jesus (we can argue about baptism later), and therefore were baptized into his death as well, his death which defeated sin. And because we died with Jesus to sin, we also were buried with him, and were raised from the dead (spiritually, we'll get into physically later). This then means we once were alive, then died in our sin, then raised again by the power of God. We are the walking dead! We are zombies! And because we are zombies, we are new creations, transformed from our old self into a new, better self, by God.

As to the physical aspect of the resurrection then, we see a lot of talk in this passage about resurrection. All that I will say about this issue has scripture support, and I make no claims on when the bodily resurrection will happen or what that means. Some claim that our old bodies will be resurrected, some say that perfect forms of our bodies will, some say it happens right after death, others that it will happen on Judgement day. I won't get into that because it doesn't matter. All that matters is that we were promised a physical resurrection, and that it only comes from God, and it will be like that of Christ.

But in our resurrection, like Jesus', we shall walk in a newness of life, because we have been united with him in a death like his. Death like his, for me, means a death of obedience. We heard the call of God, we knew that we were to die to follow his call, and we did. There's more to it, but right now that's what I think I need to focus on. I don't want to right a book on this stuff yet. But because we've had a death like his, we therefore will have a resurrection like his. Our old, sin-filled self was nailed to the cross with Jesus so that the sinful body could die, be brought to nothing, become non-existent, so that we will no longer be slaves to sin. 

"The one who has died has been set free from sin" (Rom. 6.7). If you pass on, and go to be with God, you are no longer tempted by sin. If you have spiritually died to sin and come alive in God, then in the same way sin no longer has a hold on you. You may still struggle with it, you may still fall into it from time to time, but by the grace of God you are no longer bound to it, no longer a slave to it. You have a reason to wrestle with sin instead of just accepting it. Just like a zombie it will take a lot more to kill you.

And because we have died to sin, died with Christ, we also believe that we live with him. His resurrection was so powerful that he will never die again (true meaning of resurrection) and therefore death doesn't have power over him. I had a girlfriend at one time who had 2 big fears: Feet and death. Her fear of death was because the unknown behind it. I tried to tell her the gospel and of the resurrection and life after death that Jesus gives, but it's hard to witness when you're not truly saved and doing whatever you want anyways. But death holds dominion over her, especially in the sense of fear. When you truly fear something your mind is always on it and you do all you can to avoid it. I hate spiders, I am horrible afraid of them. They're on my mind a lot and I do all I can to avoid them. But death is something we can't avoid, it comes for us all. But there is life in Jesus, and he lives his life for God, his life is connected to God, who lasts forever. In the same way we are to live to God, having our life last forever just as God does.

So do not let sin reign in your life, don't give into the mortal passions of sex drugs and rock 'n roll alcohol and whatever else you do just to feel good. Present yourself as one who is saved, not as one who is still in sin. Be a living sacrifice, dying daily to sin, and coming alive in God, presenting yourself to him as one who has been saved, been brought back to life. Since you are no longer under the law but under grace, sin shall no longer rule over you, instead God will, which is the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Death and Life

So I got productive yesterday and posted two blogs, and I'm still posting one today. Be excited at my work for yinz.

Read Romans 5.12-21.

Everything was great after the 6th day of creation. It was even better after the 7th when God created rest. But weeks, months, maybe even years later things got broke. Sin entered into the world, and spiritually death ran rampant throughout the earth, and we've been in a decline ever since.

We see in this passage that Paul talks about this very issue.

Sin came into the world through one man, death came through sin, and death spread to all men, because now all sin. See the circle? And sin was there even fore the Law, because sin is what goes against God's will, and God's will has always been there. But before there was Law, a set list of things to do and not do, sin can't be counted against those who sin because they don't know the Law.

I've been living in PA for a while now, and I know in some ways their traffic laws are different then they are in Ohio. So if I get pulled over for breaking a PA law that's different than Ohio's, and I didn't know it existed, am I able to receive a ticket for it? Personally I say yes, because if I move here I should take the time to look up how things are different than in Ohio. But would a cop let me off with a warning? Well I hope, I don't have money for a ticket and I don't know the law. In the same way, Paul writes that if someone doesn't know the law, or if the law isn't even in existence yet, they their sins against the law can't be counted against them.

So if there was sin before the Law, what does that do for the results of sin? Well death still reigned from Adam on because while there was no Law, there was still God's will, which is to have good relations with him and those around us. Just because we Fell does not mean that the commands that God gave Adam and Eve were made invalid. We were still to subdue the earth and take care of it, that just got harder because of the curse. an we were still to obey God, and we see that means giving him our best as seen in Cain and Abel's sacrifices to him, and that we're supposed to have good relations with those around us, as seen in the punishment of Cain for killing his brother. Because of these things that God wanted us to do, there was still sin in the world. And sin, death has reigned in the lives of men from Adam to Moses.

Something interesting here that's kind of off topic, but really interesting, at the end of 14 we see, "...of Adam, who was a type of the one to come." What does this mean? #icanteven (am I doing this white girl thing right?). Here's what I see in this partial sentence. Looking at the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3, we see that if ends with "Adam, the son of God." Adam was the first human ever, and being which can be called the son of God. Well Paul says that Adam was a type of the one to come. The one to come I think we can all agree on that this means Jesus. And who is Jesus? The true son of God, the son that God begat, not made, but begat. C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity talks about the word "begat" (most of you will recognize it in the form of "begotten" think John 3.16 KJV), and of it he says that begetting something is making something of the same as the maker of the thing begat. We have a child who has no physical or mental issues that the parents also don't have, they begat that child. So God had created Adam, and Adam can be defined as a son of God, and the one who is to come is a type of a son of God. More accurately, Adam is the type of a son of God, and Jesus is the true son of God, God's only begotten son. That's really all for that...but for me that was interesting and I thought I'd share that with you.

Paul then talks about "the free gift." Well what free gift is he talking about? All we've talked about in this passage thus far is death because of sin. Well looking at the passage before, which is relevant because 1, it's in the same chapter, and 2, it's the same book, so therefore it applies to this, we can assume that this "free gift" can be peace with God, his grace, our justification by the grace of God. So this free gift, this peace, is not like how it worked with the trespass.

One trespass, one sin led to the death of all people, and for many they never repent and this leads to a permanent death. But many more shall be saved by God's grace, his free gift. And this grace came through one man for all, just as death came through one man and effected all. But again, the gift and the trespass are not the same. One sin, one trespass leads to condemnation, leads to a guilty judgment against us. But the free gift will justify us no matter the number of trespasses. This again leads us to the true meaning of grace. One trespass leads to death. Grace outweighs all trespasses. Think about how great that is and what that really means.

One trespass leads to death for all. And one act of righteousness leads to justification for all. But it is not our act of righteousness, because our righteousness does not come from us, as we'll see later, but instead it comes from Jesus. It is Jesus' act of righteousness that leads to justification for all.

Over all this entire passage is about how through Adam death came to all, but through Jesus life came for all.

So I encourage you to die to sin, and come alive in Christ. Which we will be looking at even more tomorrow.

Cool Kids





So this is a song that's highly popular now and I actually enjoy it a lot. It's ironic that today of all days is when it gets stuck in my head and I listen to it about 50 times.



I was always kind of that socially awkward kid growing up. I never really fit in, did my own thing, acted like I didn't care, but honestly I did. There was a lot that went on that made me act out to gain attention, and when that didn't work anywhere I think that's when I really became an introvert, apathetic, and pessimistic.



This really started to happen around 6th and 7th grade, and just increased through middle and high school. But I remember 6th grade I was talking to a kid in my class who was popular, cool, good at everything he did, and I asked him, after stuttering for about 15 minutes, "How do I become cool like you?" We were pretty good friends, actually were in some of the same grades in elementary school. But the next year he went to a different middle school then I did, and come high school we were two completely different people. But we still talked and hung out at lunch and whatever like some kids might do.



During that those years I watched has he spiraled down into tobacco use at the age of 15, dipping in class constantly, constantly drinking, and eventually I saw him get into selling heroin, and eventually using. During our senior year I watched this guy that I knew since I was about 7 lose weight from his addiction, skipping school, forgetting the things that he once loved and cherished.



Today I saw online that he got picked up for breaking and entering, I saw his mug shot and didn't recognize him at all.



Two thoughts came racing through my mind: What if I followed him, what if our friendship didn't really end when we went to different middle schools?



I noticed with that first question was about me, and my future. Would I be strung out on drugs, breaking into houses to try and pay for my next high along with him?



Then the second question came up: What if I could have done something to prevent this fall of this incredibly smart and talented kid? What if I acted like the Christian I claimed to be and played on Sundays? What if instead of following my own, shorter, less drastic fall I was light and salt in this persons life?



These are tough questions to answer. Where would I be if I stayed friends with him? What could I have done to prevent this?



I hope a good number of people in high school are reading this, because I went through exactly what you're going through. I wanted to be like the cool kids, I wanted to fit in. Yet I saw that if I did, I could be in a horrible place. While I was in high school I looked at my fellow class mates and remember how much I was bullied and made fun of for just being me. That along with a plethora of other problems led me to dark places. And I wanted to be like those kids? What was wrong with me?



You want to be like them? What's wrong with you? You may sit there and say "Oh they aren't that bad" but in all societies the stronger prey on the weak, the different, and those who are strong and go against them. I'm happy for where I am today, because I go against cultural norms. I go with God. He is my path. I no longer want to be like others because I find meaning in being me. I am who I am by the grace of God, and I accept that.



So I pose this question to you: Who are you? A new creation in Christ? Or a mold that society tells you to be?



If you don't know you better figure it out before you end up with all the other molds that are unhappy in their lives, sprinting towards alcohol and drug abuse, just waiting to turn into the next divorce statistic working a dead end job.



Don't wish to be like the cool kids. Pray to be like Christ.

Tuesday, October 21, 2014

What does "Peace" Mean?

Read Romans 5.1-11

So as I've mentioned before, I took a class on Romans a while back and for the final assignment I had to write a research paper. I chose this passage as my text. I thought about just throwing that paper on here, but it's 14 pages long. I'm not that mean. But this is a great passage, one of my favorites. So let's get into it.

The very first verse we see that we have peace with God through Jesus. A lot of people that I talk to think of that word "peace" as relaxing, chill, pacific, clam. While all of these may be true, the true intention behind the word is like that of peace after a war. In sin we were at war with God, but through Jesus we are no longer in open rebellion, we are at peace.

Not only do we have peace with God through Jesus, but through faith in him we also stand in God's grace as well. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Grace if preached properly sounds like heresy. Though one trespass, one sin condemns us, by being at peace with God and by standing in his grace, our sin is forgotten before we even finish doing it (we'll get more into this later). And because we stand in the amazing grace we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. In chapter 8 we see that God's glory is our inheritance, and that we are heirs of it because of Jesus.

What does it mean to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God though? Well looking at verses 3-5 helps us understand it even more. But overall this phrase means that we have faith that we shall receive the glory of God, and in the following verses we see that because we hope we receive. That is because not only do we rejoice in hope, but we also rejoice in suffering because suffering leads to endurance of hard times, and endurance leads to the building of character, and character produces hope. And this hope doesn't disappoint us, it doesn't put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into us through the Holy Spirit which was given to us.

Now if we connect a few things, we see that in the Old Testament, when God was on Mt. Sinai, and in the Tabernacle, and when he passed in front of Moses, and in the Most Holy Place, it was always referred to as his glory entering into that particular place. This is still understood as God entering that particular location. Now we see in the New Testament that we are the Tabernacle, the Temple, the dwelling place of God. We know that the Holy Spirit is God, and we see here that it is poured out into us because of God's love and our hope. So connecting all of this we can see that our hope gives us the Holy Spirit, God himself, God's glory. Because of this, our hope is not disappointed.

What is even more amazing about God's love which was poured out for us, and because of his dedication to having peace with us, while we were still weak in the flesh, at the absolutely perfect time he sent his son to die for us, the ungodly. Now someone may die for a righteous person, and for a good person someone might die for them. But an ungodly person? No one would die for them. But God, in showing his great love, died for us in the form of his son while we were still sinners. While we were still in open rebellion against him, he died for us.

And because of this we are justified by his blood. And because of being justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from his wrath? While we were still enemies, we were reconciled by the death of Jesus. And because we were reconciled we are also saved.

What Paul is getting at here is this: We stood before a firing squad condemned to death. They had us dead to rights. God took aim, he fired at us which was just of him to do. Yet after he fired that bullet to kill us, he jumped in front of it to take it for us, because of his great love.

And because of this we are able to have peace with God, be reconciled to him, and stand in his grace. So we rejoice in God and his works, which is only possible for us to do through Jesus, because through him we have been reconciled with God.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

An Example All Will Know

Read Romans 4

First off, for some reason I can't type right today, so please excuse any typos that may, and probably will, come along.

Now, the title today is not for you, it is for those Paul was writing to. He just spent, according to us, three chapters telling the Church in Rome that no one is righteous, especially the Jews who were looking down on the Gentiles for not first being Jews before they became Christians. Now you may be thinking, "Oh Acts 15 and the Council of Jerusalem! They should know!" Except the church in Rome was most likely not started by that time.

There is massive parallel here as well to our culture today, I'm speaking of mostly American culture.

This picture really shows first how many who are outside of Christianity see us, and second, correctly depicts many Christians in American culture today. I heard this story about a preacher that went into a church on his first Sunday, never meeting the congregation before. He comes in dressed as a homeless person and is ridiculed, looked down upon, spoken poorly about, and asked to leave by the people in the congregation. Only 3 out of the large congregation greet him. The service starts and he sits in the back, and  finally an elder comes up and introduces the new preacher. He walks up front, unshaven, dirty, and in rags and simply quotes Matthew 25.31-46, the Sheep and the Goats passage. 

That is the same problem that the Church in Rome was having. There were those who thought they were "holier than thou" and tried to lord over the Gentiles, believing in their own righteousness, and Paul sends them this letter saying, "No. You're not righteous." Then we see in chapter 4 Paul shows them an example that no one can be righteous on their own. He uses an example all the Jews will know, because he is the father of them all. He uses Abraham. Let's look at what this chapter would look like to us instead.

So you think that you're righteous on your own? Look at your heroes of the faith. Billy Graham, Louie Giglio, Francis Chan, Judah Smith, Mark Driscoll, Max Lucado, the list can go on and on. All of them are sinners, all of them struggle with something. Look at Mark Discoll now, having to step down from his position because of anger and control issues.  Everyone on the above list have sins that they struggle with, it just hasn't come to light in the public, but I'm sure those who they ask to keep the accountable know what they are. They can't be righteous on their own because they're human just like you and me. 

They are not justified by what they do, because if they could the could boast before God. But no one can boast before God because of our sin. But instead, they are counted as righteous because of their faith in God and in his work. If you work for your job, you expect to get paid, that's how the world turns. In Romans 6 we see that sin is paid for in death, and we see in Romans 5 that only one sin is enough to condemn us no matter how much good we do. So naturally we deserve the wages for which we work, which is death. That would not be considered a gift, but instead what we are due, what we earned. But if we don't work for ourselves, and instead believe that we can be justified by the work of God, then our faith in counted as righteousness, just like our heroes. 

And because we can be justified by faith, and have our sins forgiven, we are blessed. Now for our heroes who are also blessed in this way, did it come before or after they did something worthy? Well if the blessing came after then it could be said that they earned their righteousness, but if it was before then their righteousness was a gift. Their works are but a seal, a sign of their salvation. In the same way we follow in the foot steps of those who mentor and teach us, following in faith, upholding the law by faith, working because of our faith. Not to earn righteousness, we already have it because of our faith, but to show our righteousness, to show we are sanctified (holy/set apart).

In the following passage, and finishing up the chapter, Paul begins to get even more theological. 

God had promised Abraham that he would have a massive family and be a blessing to the world. This came before the Law was ever given, and Abraham took it by faith that God would give him what he promised, and that faith was counted to him as righteousness, and the promise was fulfilled. It is by the grace of God, given through faith, that the promise can be given to his offspring, which also includes us, being those who share the faith with Abraham in God. 

Something that's really cool here is what Paul writes: That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring, including the one who shares the faith of Abraham in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

That's a bit chopped up, but man is that powerful. Turn to Ezekiel 37 and read that. Look at Romans 6 and see how we are alive in Christ. God brings life to the dead, including us who were dead in our sins! This is because of our faith in his works, and we are now a part of the promise given to Abraham, making us a part of the New Israel. Not only that but we are new creations as well, being something that had never existed before and God has made us exist because of his love for us! How freaking awesome is that?!

Yet our faith, our hope is not easy, Paul writes that Abraham had hope against hope. Faith doesn't make sense to those who are perishing. I talk with atheists pretty regularly and all they do is try to poke holes in my faith and my theology, "Oh well if you say God does this then this must be true as well." No, God's infinite and a lot of times doesn't make sense to us. So we hope against hope. We no longer hope in ourselves, something we know. Instead we hope in something that so many try to dissuade us from, and put our lives into someone else's hands. And because of this, times will get hard, we will be tested. Yet he gives us the strength by giving us himself to work through us to withstand the hard times to get to his promise of the resurrection, which is given to us by Jesus the Christ, our Lord and King, who himself was raised from the dead so that we might be justified as well.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Well if they're not, and they're not...is anyone Righteous?

Read Romans 3

The answer to the title question is a simple one.

No.

From verse 1 of chapter 3 we can see that the Jews believe that they had an advantage over the Gentiles in having righteousness, but Paul turns that around on them and says "No you don't." They were entrusted with a message from God, yet many were unfaithful to God. Now does that make God completely drop us? No, that's the opposite of grace. I'm pretty sure I've said this in my blog before and I'll say it again, grace, if preached properly, sounds like heresy. And this is exactly the case here in the first few verses of chapter 3.

Now I don't really hold stock to once saved always saved, but I do hold stock in God's faithfulness.
2 Timothy 2.13 Paul writes that if we are faithless, God remains faithful. That's exactly what he writes here in verses 3 and 4, if we are faithless God is still faithful to us. This, for me, does not mean once saved always saved, but it instead gives a full look into what grace looks like. Even when we mess up, even when we decide to try and take things into our own hands and lose faith in God, he still remains faithful to us. Though we forsake him he does not forsake us. Instead he lets us try it our way, and we see that we can't save ourselves or properly run our own life. We fall, we get hurt, life gets tough and we can't handle it, but he's still there with us, remaining faithful despite our arrogance and pride. He remains faithful.

As to how this is grace and sounding like heresy, what Paul is truly saying is that we're going to sin. We're going to screw up, we're going to turn our backs on God. But his grace in our lives says, "It's fine. I'm still here. I'm still faithful to you. Though you cheat on me I won't cheat on you."

Verse 5 then speaks about our unrighteousness and God's righteousness. If our unrighteousness shows God's righteousness, or we're the bad example God is the only good example, would it then be unrighteous of God to punish us for being a bad example? No! Would it be unrighteous for a parent to punish their child for doing something wrong? Is it wrong to imprison a convicted murderer? Is it wrong for me to spray my cat when he climbs a lamp shade? No! (Though nowadays the parents issue is being disputed which is why people probably have such a big problem with God and his judgement thinking that he's just as evil as we are.)

But because we are unrighteous God's righteousness is indeed shown. By our lies God's truth is made known. He makes good come out of bad situations. I got screwed over by a church which was a bad situation because of hypocrisy and lies, yet if that didn't happen I wouldn't have been able to meet the people I have back at home, nor come into the new ministry that God has called me to. I wouldn't be placed in a position where my faith is tested and my relationship grows. Out of a bad situation comes a good one and God's glory is shared.

Paul then poses an interesting question in verse 8: Why don't we sin more so that good can happen? He poses a similar question in chapter 6 which we'll look at later. Then right after that he shows that he was being ridiculed by those in the Church with saying heresy, or preaching true grace. Yes, he says, it does sound wrong, it does sound like I'm saying that there's no point to stop sinning, because one we have grace and two by our unrighteousness God's righteousness is shown. But, as he has said before and will say again, this does not mean that we should continue in sin.

So then are the Jews better off because they hold to the Law? Nope, Chuck Testa

(Sorry I think in memes. If you don't know what that means just look up Chuck Testa on Youtube Or Follow this link and enjoy!)

Paul writes that he's already established that both Jew and Gentile (or Christian and non-Christian in our case) are condemned and under sin. He then, with his vast knowledge of the OT from being a Pharisee shows with scripture that the Jews would know that they are indeed under sin.

Then in verses 19 and 20 Paul makes things a bit confusing, which he will increase even more in chapter 7 which will be so much fun! But what he writes is that the Law applies to those who are under it to have them act accordingly and so they will be held accountable to God. But the Jews believed that by following the Law they were saving themselves, but that's not what the Law was for. Much like the Sermon on the Mount the Law was there to instruct them how to live as though they were saved, not to justify them by their actions. This is because that by being under the Law you then come into sin.

This here is confusing. God gave us the Law and by doing so we sin? So we sin because of what God gave us? Well we're under sin either way, it's just by having the Law that we recognize sin and (should) understand that without God's grace in our lives we stand condemned. And because we are condemned and under sin we cannot be justified or righteous by our own works. We're hanging from a cliff and lack the strength to climb ourselves up to safety.

As for the righteousness of God, it is completed even without the Law because, having been the distributor of the Law he then is righteous even without it. And we (unrighteous humans) receive his righteousness as our own by having faith in Jesus.

Verses 23 and 24 blow be away: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Boom.

All of us have sinned! All of us fall short of deserving God's glory daily. Yet we are justified despite our shortcomings because of HIS grace which is a free gift made available to us because of the redemption that can only be found in Jesus! And he is God's grace for us, given to us as a gift to truly show God's righteousness, because only because of Jesus God is able to pass over our previous sins.

This is some great stuff. God knows that we're condemned in our sin and completely unrighteous. Yet he sends his son down out of his own grace and righteousness and because of/in response to our unrighteousness so that we can receive his grace in full, take on his righteousness as our own, be justified despite our sin, and have all our sins forgotten and passed over all by having faith in his son. So much to gain with such little effort. All because God did all the work for us.

So what then, as unrighteous people by our own actions, and only righteous by God's actions and his gifts, do we have to boast about? Nothing but the works of God. God is the God of all, he is the King and Lord of all despite our admitting it or not. But those who do admit it receive his free gifts and claim him as their own King and Savior. And because of our faith in him as our King and Savior, we then uphold the Law, not for our own righteousness, but because of his righteousness that he has given to us.

To God be the glory now and forever. Amen.

Monday, October 13, 2014

Romans 2 continued

Again, sorry for the long wait.

Read Romans 2.12-29

Today we're going to finish up Romans 2. The past 3 posts have been and introduction into Romans along with the power of the gospel, proof that all Gentiles are sinners, and proof that all Jews are also sinners. That pretty much covers everyone. Now today, Paul finishes his thoughts on how Jews are sinners as well.

Verse 12 is Paul telling us that if someone has sinned against the Law without knowing the Law then they will die without the Law as well. But those who sin against the Law while knowing the Law then they will be judged. What he's basically writing is that if we sin and don't know the Law then we can't be judged by it.

I've been in Pittsburgh for a while now, and some traffic laws in PA are different than those in Ohio. How? I don't know. But I wonder if I get pulled over for breaking a strictly PA law without knowing that law even exists would I still get a ticket? Of course the poor guy in me says, "No I shouldn't get a ticket" but wouldn't the officer say, "Well you knew you were moving here, you've been here for 4 months now, you should have taken the time to learn these laws. You had a responsibility to."

Let's tie these two together then. If people who don't know the Law and can die without being judged for breaking it, shouldn't we just keep it to ourselves? No, we have an obligation, a responsibility to spread the Gospel to all the world. We were commanded to by Jesus. In Revelation 10.9 we see the little scroll given to John and he is told to eat it. Keep it in his stomach, his body, it's bitter. Keep it in his mouth, on his tongue and lips and it's sweet. This is the Gospel. We keep it in us and it becomes bitter and nasty, but if we are always worshiping God and having his glorious works on our lips and in our mouth it's sweet, and great.  So we have an obligation to share the Gospel, and it will actually benefit us if we do so.

Verse 13 Paul writes that just by hearing the Law will not make us righteous, but it is the doers that are justified. Later we will see how that works out, but what Paul is not saying is that we can justify ourselves. It doesn't work like that.

There is an idea floating around that God reveals himself to all, and that there is a moral code in all of us that cannot be explained by anything other than being made in the image of God. If you can explain the moral code that all people have strictly by science, I would love to hear it. But Paul writes about this very issue, that the Gentiles knew some of the Law, because it's just a part of being human, and they were a law to themselves. It was not complete, and they had no one to hold them accountable or to properly interpret the Law for them. But when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount he gave the proper interpretation to the Law, and we were able to understand it. And through the message of the Gospel then the Gentiles will be able to understand the Law. And the Jews have a responsibility to share the Gospel with them to keep them from condemnation.

17 to 23 is a wake up call for both Jews and us today. They claim to know the law and boast in God. We do this as well. "I know Jesus! I'm saved! As a matter of fact I'm better than you sinners down there. You shouldn't be doing the things you're doing. Sinners." We preach against adultery, theft, lying, idolatry, and yet we do these very things ourselves. And in verse 24 we can hear Paul's hand slap the Romans Jews right in the face, and we feel the sting ourselves.

The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.

Slap.

One of the biggest complaints about Christians from non-Christians is that we are hypocrites which means we do what we tell others not to do. And because of it people see no appeal in the Kingdom or in God and his name is blasphemed because of us. We have no integrity anymore in this culture. I'm not saying all Christians are bad, but if you claim to follow Christ and all you do is complain about life, or all you do is party, or cuss, or sleep around, and your actions never match up with what you say and you act like anything but a Christian then you're only dirtying the name of Christ and at which point I beg you to lose the title of which we all are unworthy of but that you constantly and without any true thought slander with your actions. 

IF YOU CLAIM TO BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST THEN ACTUALLY BE A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST.

Else the name of God is blasphemed among the unsaved because of you.

I've spoken a lot about actions just now, but Paul here speaks against actions. The Jews believed that their actions, their following the Law would save them. It doesn't. It never has and never will. It is only faith that God has done all the work that will save us. But in response to that we should live that we've been saved. Not revel in sin. Not be depressed because we're still sinners. Not live as the world lives with all its worries and woes. 

Instead we are to live in the light of God, understand how blessed we are. And this should come out in our actions. If you are truly saved, and you really know what that means then you couldn't help but dance from joy and shout it from the roof tops. 

Because we have been circumcised. the useless, the unhealthy has been but away from our hearts by the Spirit and we have life in Christ and are new creations.

This is Romans 2. The Jews are just as bad as the Gentiles. They boast in the Law but miss the point behind it, so much so that those outside of the Law blaspheme the name of God because of them. They boast in their actions, in their circumcision, but miss God's actions and the circumcision from him.

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

God's "Chosen"

Sorry for the long wait. When I wrote this it was offline on my tablet, then I got busy with school and never grabbed it to publish. But we're back now!

Read Romans 2

So yesterday I wrote about how Gentiles are indeed not righteous. They knew God, but turned their back on him for pieces of wood and stone. Today, in Romans 2, we see something similar about the Jews, God's chosen people.

You can see the Jews in the church sitting there nodding as the first chapter is read. "Yes you Gentiles are nothing but filthy sinners!" This is a major problem that was in the church in Rome, that the Jews, who were kicked out of the city and then were allowed back in, and they began bashing and hating on the Gentiles in the church. But then we flip to chapter 2 and see Paul turn to the Jews to let them have it.

You have NO excuse people. You judge them for their sin which only brings judgment upon you! You condemn yourselves! And you knew that judgment brings condemnation, yet you still did it, doing the very same sin that you have condemned! Do you really think you can escape judgment just because you are God's "chosen?" Do you think God is just going to give you his forgiveness with you not repenting of your sin? Or did you just not know? You too are deserving of God's wrath.

That's just the first five verses. Paul threw down on these guys. He isn't happy with them. But in these verses we see something that answers a question that I've had for a long time: What comes first in the Christian life and salvation? Grace or faith?

Some say that grace is given to us in full and by that grace we have faith that the grace is there.
Others say that there is no grace before faith, but by faith we receive grace in full.

I'm in the middle, and verse 4 is why. "God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance." God has shown grace to us, just enough so that we know that it's there in full and enough to have faith and to be led to repentance. And because of that faith that the grace in full is available, we take that step, being action of our faith, and repent. What this comes down to then is

Grace-->Faith-->Action-->Grace

Now this is not saying that we save ourselves, that is the point of the first three chapters, we are not righteous, because if we were then we wouldn't need Jesus. But it's like we're hanging from a cliff, and Jesus tosses down the rope. We can either think we can climb up the cliff and save ourselves, but we can't because we're not strong enough, or we can grab onto the rope, hoping that the person on the other end will pull us to safety. But it takes action to prove our faith that grace is there to be had.
Make sense? Good!

Verses 6-11 then is more of this. Paul is writing to the Jews about reaping what you sow, and warns them in verse 8 especially, "but for those who are self seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." Looking after #1 is what our culture is always telling us to do, that's self seeking, that's not obeying the truth that God is number one, that's thinking that you are doing everything right. That's wrong. To all that do this, they will reap what they sow, there will be distress for them, they will drink but never be satisfied.

But for those of us who listen and obey the truth, and keep our eyes on the only one that matters there will be glory and honor. Both to Jews, and also to Gentiles, because God shows no favoritism.
Again, keep in mind while looking at this that, from the text, we can see that Jews are looking down on the Greeks in the church because they are not descendants of Abraham. Tomorrow we'll finish up chapter 2. GET PUMPED!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

God As...

Read Romans 1.18-32

Last year during my final semester at KCU the section I was in went through Romans for devos that semester. They met at about 10 on Tuesdays, during the fall, when Sons of Anarchy, my soap opera as many call it, was on. There aren't many shows I watch religiously, but that is one of them. So needless to say I missed quite a few devos. I know. I'm a sinner.

But I tell that to tell this: The first week we did our dorm devos we went through Romans 1. We read it, and just dove in. A friend of mine, who I didn't know at the time because he was new, said, "I'll just jump in here. I really love how it all says that 'For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness for men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.' I think it's awesome how God just shows his wrath to the wicked, the sinners, ungodly and he punishes them in his wrath."

Now being on a Christian campus, you can expect some differences in theology, as you can anywhere else. But this one pushed some people over the edge and a riot was almost had against this guy. "God isn't wrathful like that! He's loving and gives everyone a chance! He saves his judgement until the end, no while they're here!" We then came to the fantastic difference between free will and predestination. Anger, shouting, slandering, hating, all the typical things you find in a major argument between Christians over something they believe is cut and dry.

Now me being the oldest and wisest there, I quietly cut in and get everyone to listen. The first thing I say is this:

You view God how you choose to see him.

What I meant was this. My buddy chose to view God as a wrathful, angry God who punishes the wicked. Yeah. That's sound theology, we find that in scripture. I choose to see a loving God who waits to unleash his wrath to give all a chance because we we'll see throughout Romans, salvation is for all. Over all, I lean towards free will, I learn towards a loving God above all else. I recognize that there will be consequences for those who have not sought refuge in the only one in whom there is refuge. But that's how I view God. That's my theology. As long as your theology is sound in scripture without taking something out of context I'm alright with it. I may not agree with it, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is that we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Son of God, and that he was nailed to a cross, dying for our sake, taking on our sin, and that he rose again 3 days later. As long as we can agree on that I'm not entirely worried about our differences.

So, all of that is for the italicized sentence above: You view God how you choose to see him. So looking at the second half of Romans 1, we'll see a different view of God which may or may not be your own view of him.

In the second half of Romans 1 we see a lot of information about God.
  • He hates ungodliness
  • He hates the truth being suppressed
  • What can be known about God has been made plain to all because he has shown it to them
  • His power and divine nature has been seen since the creation of the world
It needs to be noted that this particular chapter of Romans is Paul writing about Gentiles, pagans, anyone who isn't Jewish, which we will see later that that particular group makes up a big chunk, if not the majority of the church in Rome.

There is a lot in these three verses. We obviously see God's hatred for ungodliness. That's easy to get. But we also see that What can be known about god has already been main plain to Gentiles. His invisible attributes are seen by all. This is called "general revelation." This is the idea that all have seen and recognized that there is a higher power. Some close their minds to it and say that these invisible qualities of God can be explained by science. While we may have explained some things by science, there is still much much more that cannot be explained. Don't ask me what because I'm horrible at science. 

God reveals himself to us all, in one way or another. I wrote a while back about how we all come to God in different places, be it a basement, a heater in a house, on a hill in the rain, or a chair in a campus house, somewhere in our lives God reveals himself to us. Something unexplainable happens and we just know that it had to be God. And what I mean by unexplainable is the thing happens, we recognize God's hand, and we just can't put into words what happened. Not that we can't explain how it happened, God did it, but we can't explain what happened.

They passed on God, the infinite and immortal God, for carved images of beasts and man, things they understand that truly hold not power at all. Because of this is why God gave them up. He gave them up to their own lusts and sin, allowing them to dishonor their own bodies. The traded the truth of God for lies from their own minds which they attributed to stone and wood.

In verses 26-27 we see that yes, homosexuality is a sin. I'll say it and won't pull any punches. Homosexuality is not natural, it is not what God intended. It is a distortion of what God has given us, much like gluttony. It is worshiping something other than God. And God despises this. But as the text says, he gave them up to their own sin, and they are receiving their due penalty for their sin. It should be noted, I do not condone gay marriage, but neither do I condemn it. This is not a Christian nation, I do not think that what I believe should have laws made about it. If I am free to practice my religion, I feel two men should be able to practice what they wish. But, if there are Christians trying to justify their own homosexuality, it can't be done. If you're a pagan, act like a pagan. If you're a Christian, act like a Christian. If you struggle, that's fine, we all struggle with something. But don't try to justify your sin because they you are nothing more than a person trying to be both. Homosexuality is a sin. And like all sin it's a choice. We love you, and we want to help you, but if you try to justify your sin as I once did you only mar the name of Jesus. So you need to make a choice. Yourself, or Christ. There is no middle ground.

But moving on from that, we see in verse 28 again that God just gave them up. He let pagans act like pagans. They didn't acknowledge him, he so let them go. This does not mean that God gives up on us. That needs to be very clear. GOD DOES NOT GIVE UP ON US. He stays stationary, and let's us walk away. If I decided today that I no longer wanted to be a part of the Church, no longer wanted anything to do with God, and I walked away, he would remain where he is, waiting for me to come back. Hoping for me to come back. He would let me go to live in sin, and be filled with all that we see in verses 29-31. But that doesn't mean that he wouldn't still want me. That doesn't mean that if I truly repented he wouldn't forgive me. Of course this is how I view God and this is what I see in scripture, others may say something else. But this is how I see it.

Verses 29-31 gives us a big list of things not to do, or mindsets not to have, or things to avoid. However you want to look at it, these things deserve death (32). They are:
  • unrighteousness
  • evil
  • covetousness
  • malice
  • envy
  • murder
  • strife
  • deceit
  • maliciousness
  • gossips
  • slanderers
  • haters of God
  • insolent
  • haughty
  • boastful
  • inventors of evil
  • disobedient to parents
  • foolish
  • faithless
  • heartless
  • ruthless
I want you to look at this list. See if there is anything in here that you fall under. Do you gossip? Boast in yourself? Do you disobey your parents? Do you cause unnecessary conflict? Do you covet? Do you envy? Do you bash others? What is it that you do that you deserve death for?

In Romans 1 we see that no, Gentiles are not righteous by a long shot. Tomorrow in chapter 2 we will see that the Jews also are not righteous at all, which will completely blow their mind.

As promised, I will define righteousness. It will be brief, but it will be good. Looking above at the list we see a lot of bad characteristics to have. All of these fall under being unrighteous, or going against what God wants us to do. So if that is the opposite of righteous, then righteous must be doing what God does want us to do. And what does God want us to do? Glorify his name. Worship him only. Not sin. Have you ever sinned? Have you ever put something before God? Maybe a couple extra minutes of sleep so you don't get to spend time in the morning with God. Maybe you set aside your religion to do something to make you happy. "But God wants us to be happy so I should get to do what I want to be happy right?" That is trying to justify your sin. It doesn't work like that. We only, truly find joy in life in Christ (1 Peter 1.8-9; Romans 5.2). Joy is in the Lord, not ourselves. We are not complete. Christ is. When we come into him we come into completion and we find all we need. That is joy. And in Christ we also take on his righteousness. The only one who ever did all that we are commanded to do is the only one who is truly righteous, and when we are in him, we take on his righteousness as our own.

So righteousness is not something we can achieve ourselves, only Christ has. Only Christ has done right by God, because he himself is God. No one can be righteous by their own accord, which is why we need Christ and God's grace.

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

The Power of the Gospel

A while back I took a class on Romans. How the class was done was we sat around a table, opened up our Bibles, and just got into the Word. By far this has been my favorite class in 5 years of college.

Recently, I've been going through the book of Romans on my own, a chapter at a time. There is some great stuff in there. I think over the next few weeks I'll be going through Romans on this. Hopefully it'll get me to start posting more. That'd be cool.

Go ahead and read Romans 1 for me. As always, take your time. Take notes. Write questions. Underline, highlight, mark up. Actually get into the text. Don't just read it, have a conversation with it. Take 10 minutes, take an hour. Just actually get into the text.

Now I may do a chapter at a time, or maybe a passage at a time, but as I said there is a lot here. So let's dive in.

Chapter 1 as a whole has one theme in it: The Gentiles are sinners. Great start in a letter to a church.

Verses 1-7 are Paul greeting the church as a whole though, Jews and Gentiles alike. In verse 1 he calls himself a servant, which he does in many of his letters. I love seeing this because Paul, the author, is one of the greatest missionaries this world has ever seen. Through him the Church has exploded to exponential proportions and he had endured so much suffering for the Church. He was top dog, widely respected, great at his job, and hand picked by God. Yet he called himself a servant, a lowly being in the grand scheme of things. This is something we should always remember, that we are no more than mere servants of Christ. Verses 2-6 we see the essentials, the aspects of the Gospel.

  • Promised beforehand by God through prophets and other scriptures
  • Concerning his Son (Jesus)
  • Who came from the line of David
  • And was declared the Son of God in
    • Power
    • According the the scriptures
    • His resurrection
  • Through whom we have received grace
  • To bring obedience of faith for his name to all people
What all of that means is that Jesus was promised from the beginning. He was declared the Son of God by the power he had, the scriptures, and his resurrection. By him we have received grace, so that we can take this message to all the people so that they may be obedient by faith. This last bit is a big theological bit, and we'll see it more later in Chapter 8.


This letter then, is to all those in Rome who are a part of the church, loved by God, and called to be saints. Paul passes to them grace and peace which can only come from God.

Paul, a man of great compassion, longs to be with this church. We see later that it kind of just sprung up out of no where, with no apostle directly tied to its founding (according to some scholars whom I agree with). Paul is thankful for this church because they are known throughout the world for their faith.

Think about this: What if today your church was known throughout the world? Not because of your size, or the building, or the preacher, but because of the faith of the congregation. In order for that to be a reality you would have to do something to show your faith (James 2.14-26). Think about how great it would be if you loved on those around you so much that the world, the entire world, would know about this guy named Jesus because of your boldness in the faith.

Paul hears of their faith and longs to visit them to encourage them, strengthen them, and pass on gifts so that they may continue in the work of Christ. But so far Paul has been unable to visit because of his other obligations. I wrote just above that Paul is a man of great compassion. It is seen in these verses here. He longs, doesn't just want, but longs, to come visit the church in Rome. But he is under obligation to minister to Greeks, barbarians, the wise and the foolish. He sets aside his own desires for the spreading of the Gospel. This proves just how much of a servant Paul is, and I believe fully we need to imitate him in this. Always partner with Christ to further his Gospel, putting aside our won selfish desires and needs for those around us.

Why should we do this? Because there is power in the Gospel. Verse 16 tells us that Paul is not ashamed of the Gospel despite the fact that it makes him look crazy. The Gospel that we believe in is the message that God, the only God, put on skin and bone, came down to earth, lived as a servant to all, was even killed on a cross, then rose again three days later only to ascend into heaven 40 days after that. Doesn't that sound crazy? Yet Paul is unashamed of this message, and puts aside his own wants because of it.

Why? Because there is power in the Gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone! And in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith and for faith because the righteous shall live by faith.

The phrase "from faith for faith" is a bit hard to understand. But hopefully God shows me what it actually means so we can understand this a little bit better. As always, I suggest you read what the text actually says. That's what I do and it tends to help understand it. By faith we receive grace (Eph. 2.8). This grace gives us the righteousness of God (Rom. 4.4). So from faith we receive God's righteousness for greater faith in us and so that others may see the righteousness that God has imparted on us for their own faith (John 3.21).

Righteousness itself is a tricky term. It's one of those words those in the Church throws around and everyone nods like they know what it means, but in reality they have no clue. Tomorrow I will get into what righteousness is, and then finish out Romans 1. This will actually be really good because the rest of Romans 1 is the exact opposite of righteousness (for the most part).

So as you go throughout your day, reflect on the power of the Gospel, of God's love for us. Count others higher than yourself. All others. Not just some, but all. And imitate Paul as he imitates Christ, and be a servant.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

The church

Be clear with the title. That is church with the small c. Local church, churches that we go to on a regular basis. This may include the Church as well, but that's not what I want to focus on right now.

Today and the past couple of day's I've seen a lot of shared posts about "Bad Christian"s blog. From what I have gathered (I haven't had a chance to read the blog yet because I've been busy today), they speak out against the church.

Grab your pitchforks and torches people, it's time to riot against these heretics.

How DARE they speak against our church. We are absolutely perfect! Our church does nothing wrong! Now maybe some of those other churches out there, they need to listen to what some people have to negatively say about churches, but not us.

That mentality right there my friends is wrong. We live in a broken world, we screw things up every day, and that includes how we do church and live our lives as a church. Ever church has its problems, and all are different.

I read another blog today from a person from my generation about why people from our generation are leaving the churches. His point was mainly that when we were younger and in youth group, we had a say, we could make decisions and it seemed like people cared about us. But once we get to "grown up church" we're back on the bottom rung, we get no respect I tell you, no respect. We no longer have a voice, we no longer are respected or heard. It's the older generations who look down on us as if we're stupid that run the show.

THIS IS WRONG

What's funny is when the generations above me were my age, they had the exact same struggles that millennial's have today. It's like they completely forgot what it was like to be our age. I know dementia and Alzheimer's doesn't start in the 40's people. And even if it does that would be an incredibly rare case. 

But the leadership of the churches need to remember 1 Timothy 4.12: Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Instead set an example. 

"But that only applies to you people Mike, to get them to behave properly. Those heathens."

That is not why Paul wrote that. He wrote that to Timothy, a man he brought up in the faith, and told him that the leadership around him is horrible, and he needs to show them what's up. People my age and younger--DO THIS. People older than me--Listen to these guys. They know what they need, they know what they want. They want Jesus, they want meat, and they want to be heard and respected. They are as much a part of the church as you are, just because we are young does not mean that we can be ignored or tossed aside. Times have changed since our parents and grandparents were are age, so they need to understand what that means for us. The way we think even is at it's very core different, and you think we should just come to church, sit on our butts and listen to a message that always ends in an alter call? (Not that I have problems with alter calls, but we should not always be worried about quantity.)

I have a dream of a generation of millennials who were brought up in the church, graduate high school and college, and jump actively into leadership roles in their churches because of their passion for what the church is doing. What I don't want to see though is people who graduate and jump into leadership roles just because a spot needs filled, which I have seen happen.

The church today is broken and run by broken people, and that's okay. But what is not okay is the lack of change in all the churches that I see, and I see a lot. 

Younger people- Don't let anyone look down on you because you're young. Show them you are capable of actually being responsible. (And in order to do that you have to be responsible.)
Older people- Quit being the "back in my day," buttoned down, idea killing, heathen calling, stereotypical old person which all of us younger guys think you are. Instead remember what it was like to be our age, put yourself in our shoes. Did you want to be listened to? Then listen to us. We may surprise you.

I want to end this post today with this: I love you all. I don't know who's going to read this, I don't care. I think we're all broken and need some healing, and we all need to come to terms with the other generations, acknowledging that they may have something worth saying. So please, love, listen to, and respect each other. You'll get a lot further in your ministries.