Category Archives: Romans

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Romans 5: (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding

Read Romans 5:1-11

(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained
access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.
And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
~Romans 5:1-2

Digging Deeper: Elvis Costello & The Attractions (I know, your favorite band) first popularized the song, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” back in the late 1970’s.  If you haven’t heard it—it’s actually a pretty catchy song—you might want to download it to your ITunes.

Anyway, that’s a digression from what I want to talk about.  But I do think it makes a pretty good title for Romans 5:1-11.  The essence of Paul’s argument here is that we have peace with God (not just inner calm and serenity, but literally, the mutual hostility between God and man because of man’s sin has been ended) and access (free, unlimited, and irrevocable) to his grace (unmerited favor) because, through his love, we have been justified (a once-and-for-all legal settlement) by Christ’s sacrificial death.

I don’t know about you, but I find that funny. Not just kind of funny, but gut-splittingly funny!  “Funny” not in the sense of ridiculous—although getting credited with righteousness before God through Christ’s account is a pretty ridiculous equation, wouldn’t you say?  Not just “funny” in the sense of foolish—although the idea of being right with God apart from good works and human effort is the height of foolishness to those who are not saved. And not just “funny” in the sense of odd—although how odd is it that God would go to such great links to prove his love by loving that which was completely unlovable? (Romans 5:6-8)

No, I’m talking “funny” in the sense that what God has done for you and me is so undeserved, and we are such unlikely candidates for his grace, that the only response you and I can offer in return is to fall on our knees, undone by love, overflowing with gratitude, and giddy with joy!

These first eleven verses are so amazingly profound that no commentary I or anyone else can offer will really do them justice.  So I want to recommend that you simply read and re-read them until the Spirit who inspired them illuminates them to you in a fresh way and brings you into a true and deeper understanding of what it took to justify you, and what it means for you to stand in peace and grace in God’s presence.

I have a sense that when you really begin to understand this—although I’m not sure we will ever really and fully “get” what has been done for us—you will probably fall on your knees in laughter, or dumbfounded silence, or tears—because all those responses are appropriate when you begin to understand even in the slightest the amazing grace and the deep, deep love of God!

What’s so funny ‘bout peace, love and understanding?  Everything!

“Mercy for the sinner, help in the hardest place,
everything for nothing, that is grace!”
~C.C. Beatty

This Week’s Assignment (Including two options for scripture memory):

  • Option A—Memorize Romans 5:1-4,  “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.”
  • Option B—Memorize Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
  • Read Romans 5:1-11 once a day for the next seven days (you might want to use different version on different days). Ask God to give you a fresh understanding of the richness of these verses.
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Romans 4: God’s BFF

Read Romans 4:16-25

 

God’s BFF

 

“God’s promise of eternal life is received through the same kind of faith demonstrated by Abraham, who believed in the God who resurrects the dead and creates new things out of nothing.”
~Romans 4:16

Digging Deeper: I don’t know if you’ve done much thinking about Abraham, but what a true hero of the faith! Here’s a guy who was saved by faith even before there was a Bible or the Law or Christ’s death and resurrection or a community of faith. God appeared to Abraham one day—we’re not even sure if he’d had any previous interaction with God or if this was simply an out of the blue encounter—and Abraham said, “Okay God—I’m on board. What’s next?”

Abraham then went on a life-long journey with God in which he became known as a friend of God—a pretty cool designation, I’d say—the genetic father of God’s people, the Jews, and the spiritual father of all who believe. (James 2:23, Romans 4:1116-17)

Obviously, Abraham was a very special man, and the Bible holds him up as an example to emulate for believers like you and me. We all ought to be Abraham-like in the spiritual dimension of our lives.

But is that even possible? Is there even the smallest chance that I can develop that same kind of Abraham-like relationship with God? Can I attain a walk with God that will be an Abraham-like example to others?  And if it’s possible, then how?

Well, it is possible!  Paul goes on to say, “God will count us righteous too if we believe in him who raised from the dead this Jesus who died for our sins and was raised to make us right with God.”  (Romans 4:24, NLT)

How can we attain friendship with God?  I can sum up the “how” in two words: Faith and hope—technically, that’s three words, but works with me!

First, you’ve got to make resurrection the foundation of your faith.

That’s what Abraham did! Romans 4:17 says, “Abraham believed in the God who brings back the dead to life.” Abraham was a little ahead of his time—like a few thousand years—but he believed in the God of the resurrection. What Paul is referring to here is the story of God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac on the altar (you can read the story in Genesis 22), and Abraham’s willingness to actually go through with it. Why would Abraham be willing to do such a thing? Because he had faith in the God of the resurrection—the God who could, and would, raise Isaac back to life again.

The truth is, to have that kind of Abraham-like faith, you and I have to have that same Abraham-like trust in the God of the resurrection. If you don’t have a foundational and resolute belief in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and his promise to resurrect you from the dead, your faith will not only not develop to Abraham-like proportions, it will be meaningless. Paul teaches us in I Corinthians 15:14, “If Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.”

In other words, if we have no faith in the God of the resurrection, then I am wasting my energy writing this blog…and you’re wasting your time reading it…and you’ll never come close to living an Abraham-like life of faith. But the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves that God is who he said he is and will fulfill what he has promised to do. And the faith you place in the God who resurrects the dead will empower you to live the kind of God-honoring faith that Abraham had.

Second, you’ve got to claim resurrection as the basis of your hope.

That, too, is what Abraham did. Romans 4:18 tells us that “even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept on hoping”…believing in God’s promises that one day he would be the father of many nations when his only son, through whom his lineage would continue, was about to die. In other words, Abraham didn’t let his circumstances dominate his life; he allowed God’s promises to dictate his life. Abraham believed that if Isaac was going to die on the altar, God would raise him to life. That was his hope.

I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but the exercise of that kind of hope is arguably the most powerful discipline you can engage as a believer. Count Bismarck said, “Without the hope of [Christian resurrection], this life is not worth the effort of getting dressed in the morning.” He was right! Christian hope is that important, and that powerful.

Karl Marx proclaimed that religious hope is the opiate of the people. But Hebrews 6:19 says, “We have this hope as an anchor of the soul, firm and secure.” And Paul writes in Romans 5:5 that this “hope does not disappoint us!”

Do you practice hope? I’m not talking about the breezy kind of optimism that Mary Martin sang about in South Pacific when she crooned, “I’m stuck like a dope with a thing called hope.” I’m talking about the exercise of hope that declares that you are choosing to believe in God’s promises, not just in spite of the evidence, but in scorn of the consequences. We’ve been called to practice that kind of hope.

Faith, hope and the resurrection…that was Abraham’s secret. I have faith that it will be your secret too…at least I hope so!  He is risen!

“For a mere legend about Christ’s resurrection to have gained
circulation and to have had the impact it had without
one shred of basis in fact, is [unbelievable].”
~William F. Albright

This Week’s Assignment:

  • Memorize Romans 4:16, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”
  • Read Romans 4 in several different versions.  I would recommend the version you normally use, plus The Message and The New Living Translation.
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Romans 4: FreeCreditReport.God

Read Romans 4:1-15

 

FreeCreditReport.God

 

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
~Romans 4:3

 

Digging Deeper: I have a confession. As a college student, whenever I would come to a page in a textbook that carried an illustration or a table as an inset, I’d skip it! Rather than taking the time to allow the example to actually reinforce the point being made in the written material, I would just flip past it and hurry on to more the important extra curricular activities that awaited me. But that’s a whole “nuther” story!

Similarly, you might be tempted to skim past Romans 4, since the whole chapter is pretty much an illustrative inset to the case the Apostle Paul has been making so far: that we are justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Jewish law.  And now, to drive his point home, he presents the example of Abraham.  But don’t skip over this, because within Abraham’s example is a core principle of what it means, and what it takes, to be in right standing with God.

Eight times in this chapter alone, Paul uses the word “credited”, to deliver a theological knockout punch. The New King James Version uses the alternative terms “accounted” and “imputed” nine different times.  This is a big deal to Paul—as it is to our faith.  This is ground zero to salvation.  Here is was theologian R.C. Sproul says about it:

“Imputation is more than central; it’s essential to the New Testament gospel. Friends, I beg you never to negotiate the concept of the imputed righteousness of Christ. That’s the article upon which we stand and fall because without His righteousness all we have to offer God is filthy rags…”

Sproul goes on to say what Paul is declaring is that “the righteousness by which we are justified is an alien righteousness—a foreign righteousness.”  In other words, our right standing with God was, is, and always shall be only possible through a righteousness outside of ourselves—what is referred to as “alien righteousness.” Our righteousness before God is only possible because God credited Christ’s righteousness to us. Says Sproul, “the only righteousness that will justify us is the righteousness of Christ. We are naked and helpless without the cloak of His righteousness covering us.”

Paul took the word “credited” or “imputed” (in the Greek language, it is (“logidzomahee”) from the legal or financial world of his day.  The term meant to credit to the account of another; in this case, to take from the account of one and legally credit it to the account of another.  Once it was in the other’s account, it was legally his.  In this case, righteousness became Abraham’s by faith; in your case, right standing with God becomes yours by faith.

And here’s the mind-blowing part of this.  Even the faith it took for you to believe in Christ’s work of imputation was not your own.  That, too, was a free gift from God (see Ephesians 2:8-9). You see, if the faith it took to believe was your own, that as well would be a meritorious work—but righteousness with God just doesn’t work that way. (Romans 4:2,5) God’s act of declaring Abraham (as well as you and all other believing sinners) righteous is completely apart from any kind of human effort; otherwise God would owe us our wages (Romans 4:4).  Our believing, then, rather than being something with which we impress God into saving us, is simply the conduit through which this alien righteousness flows to us, and thus credits us with Christ’s righteousness and produces for us right standing with God.

I know that is a mouthful, but I want to challenge you to check it out here in Romans 4—our FreeCreditReport.God, if you will.  Study it, meditate on it, absorb it, and glory in it since this is the core of what it means, and what it takes, to be right and righteous with God.

“We are foul in God’s sight until He imputes
to us the righteousness of Christ.”
~R.C. Sproul

This Week’s Assignment:

  • Memorize Romans 4:16, “Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”
  • Read Romans 4 in several different versions.  I would recommend the version you normally use, plus The Message and The New Living Translation.
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Romans 3: Even A Caveman Can Get It

Read Romans 3:1-31

Even A Caveman Can Get It

“Everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. But
by the free gift of God’s grace all are put right with him
through Christ Jesus, who sets them free.”
(Romans 3:23-24, TEV)

Digging Deeper: A lot of people are overwhelmed by the complexity of religion. They are intimidated by it, they don’t get it, they don’t want to talk about it—and even if they do want to talk about it, they just can’t wrap their brain around it enough to be able to string enough cogent thoughts together to carry on a stimulating conversation.

But that is absolutely not true about true Christianity. I know, “true Christianity” is a redundancy—but I want to distinguish authentic faith from the messed up stuff that some misguided folk have turned our faith into.

Christianity is simple—so simple, even a caveman can get it. God made sure of that. Romans 3 provides it in a nutshell. Here the Apostle Paul, master theologian, who sometimes is not all that easy to grasp, probably foresaw the need for a “Christianity for Dummies” (he was thinking of me!), so he simply, clearly and briefly spelled out the real condition of humankind, God’s offer of salvation, the essence of faith, and the core beliefs of Christianity in this chapter.

I would highly recommend, as a reaffirmation of your faith and as a great refresher for evangelism, that you to go back and re-read Romans 3 in a modern translation, like The Message” or The New Living Translation. You’ll be amazed at the profound simplicity of our Christian faith.

Or I can give you the CliffNotes version:

1. The truth about you and me—Romans 3:9-12

“Basically, all of us, whether insiders (Jews who have the Law) or outsiders (Gentiles who live as a law unto themselves), start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it: There’s nobody living right, not even one, nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God. They’ve all taken the wrong turn; they’ve all wandered down blind alleys. No one’s living right; I can’t find a single one.”

2. The bad news—Romans 3:20

“For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are,” i.e., we’ll never attain God’s favor in this life now or in the life to come by being good enough.

3. The good news—Romans 3:21-22

“But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him [without our futile effort to be good enough for God]. We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.”

4. Say What?—Romans 3:23-24

“Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners and proved that we are utterly incapable of living up to the standards God demands of us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ dying on the cross to pay for our sins.”

5. How cool is Christianity—Romans 3:25

“God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world—you and me—to clear that world—you and me—of sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”

That’s it! That’s the Good News—and that news really is good! Religion is complex; Christianity is simple. Religion is about what you have to do; Christianity is about what God has done! Religion requires you to sacrifice to appease your god; Christianity required God to sacrifice his Son to appease himself. In religion, you pay; in Christianity, Jesus paid it all. Religious faith is about works; Christian faith is about belief. Religion leads to death; Christianity leads to life.

Need I say more?

Now I’m not all that bright—on par with a caveman—but I think I’ll take Christianity!  How ‘bout you?

“At last meditating day and night, by the mercy of God, I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that through which the righteous live by a gift of God, namely by faith. Here I felt as if I were entirely born again and had entered paradise itself through the gates that had been flung open.”
~Martin Luther

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Romans 3: Just As If I’d Never Sinned

 

Read Romans 3:21-31

Just As If I’d Never Sinned
 
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
~Romans 3:23-24

Digging Deeper: As a young man, I heard a simple preacher offer this definition of justification:  It is just as if I’d never sinned!  When you study what the Apostle Paul meant by the word, it turns out that is a pretty good explanation to a highly complex theology construct.

Paul uses the verb, justified, and words derived from its root, thirty times in Romans alone.  Obviously this is an important theme with Paul, and the critical core of our Christian faith.  Along with “gospel” and “faith” (see chapter 1), this is our theology.  The “good news” revealed in the New Testament is that through “faith” in Jesus Christ’s person, and his work on the cross, sinners can now stand before the holy and righteous God “justified”—just as if they had never sinned.

Now don’t miss the beauty of this!  Our justification, which was a legal concept, by the way, happened only by what Jesus did on the cross.  There he paid the penalty that you legally owed as one who had transgressed God’s law.  But not only were you pardoned from receiving the just punishment reserved for all lawbreakers, your guilt was removed as well.  So not only were you set free, you were totally cleansed—your sin record was expunged.  You now stand before God just as if you had never sinned.

Now how can that be?  Well, part of the justification package included that not only were you pardoned from punishment and declared not guilty, you were literally infused with Christ’s very own righteousness—“everything Jesus” was imputed, literally and spiritually, to you.  But that’s not all!  As beautiful as that is, it is even more stunningly beautiful that to be imputed with Christ’s righteousness meant that Jesus had to have both your sins and your sin nature imputed to him on the cross—“he became sin on your behalf so that you could become the righteousness of God.” (II Corinthians 5:21)

All of that was legally necessary for you to be made right with God.  You owed a legal debt that you could not pay to the Judge of all creation.  He loved you so much he sent his one and only Son—perfectly sinless—to pay the full legal price for your redemption by becoming sin and taking the punishment into his own being as he hung on the cross and shed his blood.

And you receive this free gift of God’s grace by faith (saving trust) alone—not by your own works of righteousness or inherent merit.  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  Hallelujah!  You stand before God just as if you had never sinned.

I don’t know about you, but the only response I have to such amazing and undeserved love is to offer the rest of my life as one unending thanksgiving offering to God.

“This is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners, for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not ours but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s, but ours.”

~Martin Luther

This Week’s Assignment:

  • Memorize Romans 3:10 and 3:23-24: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
  • Meditate on the contrasting horror of universal sin and the hope of eternal redemption that Paul speaks of here in Romans 3.
  • Write out a prayer of gratitude to God for the undeserved righteousness that was imputed to you through Christ’s work on the cross. If you are open to it, post your prayer as a comment on this blog.

 

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Romans 3: We’re All In The Same Boat

Read Romans 3:1-20

 

We’re All In The Same Boat

What shall we conclude then? … We have already made the charge that
Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one…”
~Romans 3:10

Digging Deeper: The problem with the whole of the human race—Jew and Gentile, religionist and pagan, you and me—is that we are all horribly infected with sin.  Not hopelessly…I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Though it’s not too popular to talk about sin these days—particularly personal sin—that, nonetheless, remains what is wrong with the human race. We are all in that same sin boat, headed for an eternal maelstrom of deserved destruction.  At the core, sin has separated us from our loving and righteous Creator.  He made us for himself—a loving, intimate, unfettered moment-by-moment relationship between Creator and the highest of his creation—mankind; a relationship where we would not only literally live in his presence, but we would truly know his person and personally experience his Divine power as our very own.

But we blew it!  The father and mother of our race, Adam and Eve, deliberately chose to walk away from the deal of a lifetime in order to be like God, to be equal with God, to be their own god. And in that sad moment, the genetic code of the human race was horribly corrupted by sin.  Not hopelessly…I’ll get to that in a moment.

Moreover, as a race, we willfully and inexorably plunge forward down that same road the proto-couple chose, insisting on being like God, being equal to God, being our own god. And compounding our tragedy, we don’t seem to get it. (Romans 3:11)  Or even worse, we do get it (which is more likely the case; see Romans 1:20-23), and we still knowingly insist on doing our own thing:

“All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:12)

And it gets worse…just read on in Romans 3:13-18.  But enough of the bad news—we’ve already dealt with that in Romans 1-2.  Let’s just cut to the chase of what results from our insistence on going it alone without God, which Paul sums up in Romans 3:16-17:

“Ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”

Yes, we have been horribly infected with sin.  Our genetic code is horribly corrupted with willful disobedience to the God who created us for intimacy with him. Horribly infected! Horribly corrupted!  Yet all is not hopeless.

One word changes that tragic equation, interrupts the inexorable plunge and trumps our sin: “But…” Paul pens one word that delivers the death blow to sin, splits the wide road to destruction with an off-ramp to redemption, throws a life-saver to a sinking human race so we can get out of the proverbial boat we’re all in: “But…”

Though it is not in our reading for today, take a look at the first word of the next section; venture a sneak peak at this grand verse, Romans 3:21, along with its cousin verses in Romans 3:22-26, and let your heart be lifted yet again by the unstoppable power of our Gospel.  Take a moment to read these amazing verses in the horrible context of the first twenty verses of this chapter, and just let the deep, deep love of the Father who lavished on sinners like you and me wash over your being.

Yes, the condition of humanity is horrible, “but” thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, it is not hopeless!

“The law works fear and wrath; grace works hope and mercy.”
~Martin Luther

This Week’s Assignment:

  • Memorize Romans 3:10 and 3:23-24: “As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ … for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
  • Meditate on the contrasting horror of universal sin and the hope of eternal redemption that Paul speaks of here in Romans 3.
  • Write out a prayer of gratitude to God for the undeserved righteousness that was imputed to you through Christ’s work on the cross. If you are open to it, post your prayer as a comment on this blog.
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Romans 2: The Center And The Circumference

Read Romans 2:17-29

The Center And The Circumference

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward
and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is
circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code.
Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God.
~Romans 2:28-29

Going Deeper: The covenant of circumcision was a highly important outward sign that was to distinguish the Israelites as God’s very own people.  The covenant was first given to Abraham in Genesis 17:9-14, and later reaffirmed in dramatic albeit peculiar fashion to Moses in Exodus 4:24-26. Ritual circumcision was required of every Israelite male child, and it was an important physical reminder of the greater theological reality that the cutting away and cleansing from sin was necessary to a right relationship with God.

Unfortunately, over time, the Jews became prideful in their practice of the physical act of circumcision without the practice of the more important inward act of spiritual circumcision. In effect, the circumcised but disobedient Jew’s standing before God was no different than that of the uncircumcised heathen. In fact, the Apostle Paul, in a bit of news that must have been infuriating to the circumcised Jew, said that the uncircumcised but obedient Gentile was as good as circumcised in the eyes of God. (Romans 2:26)

I suppose at this point you may be wondering what Jewish males and ritual circumcision has to do with you.  Simply this: It is easy to fall into the very same sin of Jews, presuming their ritualistic observances and religious activities got them in and kept them in good standing with God.  There couldn’t be anything farther from the truth.

Let me illustrate it this way: Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian anymore than going to McDonalds makes you a Happy Meal.  You see, neither outward appearances nor practices of piety are good and accurate indicators of authentic faith.  True faith is internal—it is a matter of the heart.

That’s what God looks at: the heart—your heart.  Now that is not to say Christians shouldn’t look and act a certain way. They should—just like the Israelites were expected to look and act a certain way.  Our faith should be observable. It should be especially true that having been with Jesus will make a noticeable difference to those watching us.  Having experienced the grace and mercy of salvation ought to catalyze change in the way we interact with the world and experience life.  The very way we look, talk, relate, work, play and engage in our moment-by-moment existence should have the “fragrance of Christ” all over it.

But at the end of the day, the fragrance of our Savior is only possible if we are thoroughly saturated with Jesus.  Jesus needs to get from the outside of our lives to the inside.  Or perhaps more correctly, Jesus needs to start on the inside and work his way to the outside—which, by the way, is what takes places as a result of the more important spiritual circumcision of the heart. (Romans 2:29) Most importantly, at the core of who we are, we ought to retain the Lord Jesus Christ. In truth, Jesus must be both the center and the circumference of our lives.

So here is the $64,000 question: Is he?

“God sees hearts as we see faces.”
~George Herbert