“Use your every part of your body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.” (Romans 6:13)

Food For Thought: A six-year-old little girl burst through the front door of her home one afternoon, excited to tell her mother what she had learned in school that day. “Mommy, guess what I learned today?” she blurted.

“What honey” her mother replied. “What did you learn?”

Pointing to her head, the girl begin to describe her first official lesson in human anatomy, “Mommy, I learned about my parts. I learned that this is my head, and it’s where my brains are.” Then she held out her hands and her looked down at her feet, “these are my hands and my feet, and they help me to do things and to go places.” Then she touched her chest and said, “here is my chest, and inside it is my heart. And it keeps me alive.” Finally, she put her hands on her tummy, and exclaimed, “and mommy, these are my bowels, and my bowels are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.”

She got most of her parts right, anyway. And that’s what Paul is calling us to do, to get our parts right by offering them every day in every way for the glory of God.

But do you? Is your brain and instrument to do what is right? Are the things that you allow your mind to dwell on the kind of things that will bring glory to God? If your thought life were to be played out in living color on the big screen, what kind of rating would it be given-P, PG? How about R? What? Really…you’d have to give it an X? What about the kind of things you allow to come into your thinking? Are those things—the TV shows you watch, the places you go on the Internet, the books you read—do they count as instruments of righteousness?

What about the things your hands do, or the places your feet take you? Would Jesus be comfortable doing those things and going those places with you? What about your heart—have you guarded it since it is the wellspring of life? And your vowels, er, your bowels. What about what you take into your body? It is the temple of the Holy Spirit, after all. How are you treating the temple…the dwelling place of God? Are you treating the ol’ bod more like a temple, or a sewage treatment plant?

Paul’s point in Romans 6 is that we have been freed from the slavery of sin in order to live in the freedom of slavery unto the glory of God. We are to be instruments of praise and righteousness with every fiber of our existence: “When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you also should consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:10-11).

Have you consecrated every part of your body as an instrument of righteousness to the glory of God, or are there some parts that are still doing their own thing? Far too many of us are like Augustine, who once prayed, “Oh Lord, give me chastity and continence, but not yet.” Dedication and consecration are an either or thing: Either you are, or you aren’t. God wants you to be totally dedicated to him, fully consecrated in mind, body, heart and energies. And he deserves it, particularly in the light of his saving grace.

You have been saved by grace—God’s unmerited favor. You have been freed from the slavery of sin; you are no longer under the threat of death—all because of God’s rich and undeserved mercy. You have been given the free gift of eternal life—all at Christ’s expense. Even the faith to believe was supplied by God. Don’t you think God deserves for you, in response, to give “your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of him”? Since God has graciously done all that—the least you can do is exert your will and consecrate your whole life as an instrument of praise.

C.S. Lewis said, “The full acting out of the self’s surrender to God therefore demands pain: this action, to be perfect, must be done from the pure will to obey, in the absence, or in the teeth, of inclination”. St. Augustine finally got it, surrendering his desires and fully dedicating his wandering will to the glory of God. Having experienced that spirit renovation, Augustine made this observation: “Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.”

God has given you his grace. Now mount up and get going! Use your whole body—every part—as an instrument to do what is right to the glory of God.

Prayer: Oh Lord, give me chastity and continence of mind, heart, soul and body—now!

One more thing… “Just as a servant knows that he must first obey his master in all things, so the surrender to an implicit and unquestionable obedience must become the essential characteristic of our lives.” —Andrew Murray

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Food For Thought: Is that the height and depth and breadth of love or what!

God loved me even when I was deep in sin, unconcerned about having any kind of relationship with him, and in fact, living in complete disregard for his law if not outright hostility toward him. And yet he still loved me, and proved that love by sending his sinless, one and only Son to die such a horrible death on the cross to pay the price that I owed for my sin. What is love? That is love!!!

If you ever begin to doubt God’s love for you, just go back to the cross and picture those nail-pierced hands and feet, the crown of thorns on his brow, the stripes on his back, and the wound in his side; imagine the humiliation, imagine the hatred spewed out against him, imagine the unbearable weight of One who knew no sin becoming sin by taking on your sin and mine, and that of the whole world; see those outstretched arms nailed to that old rugged tree…imagine those arms outstretched and hear him say, “How much do I love you? I love you this much!”

Is that the height and depth and breadth of love or what!

But don’t stop there. Imagine all of that, and then remember that he still did that even when you didn’t care, when your willful determination to sin was what put him there, when you were living in open hostility and rebellious hatred toward him—and he did it anyway. Imagine he did all that—even knowing the possibility that you would never come to your senses and bow at the foot of that cross in repentant gratitude, and he died for you anyway.

Is that the height and depth and breadth of love, or what!

I don’t know about you, but I will never get over that. And I have a feeling that one of my roles in eternity will be to travel the ever-expanding outer bands of the universes beyond our universe telling redemption’s story to a creation teaming with unredeemed yet un-fallen life. For if a creature has never fallen, how can they know such love—the love of One who willingly sacrificed his life for another living in hatred and hostility toward him? I imagine that’s what Paul had in mind when he said God’s creatures long to look in and understand such matters—they who have never sinned have never known redeeming love.

Someone has said that evangelism is the only purpose of God for us redeemed humans that won’t continue in eternity—and that may be true. But telling the Good News of God’s redeeming love as one who has experienced it first hand—I think my job of witnessing has just begun.

“But God commended his love for me in that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.”

Is that the height and depth and breadth of love or what!

Prayer: Lord, I fall on my knees in humble and repentant gratitude at the thought of your redeeming love. I cannot fully grasp the love of One who would die to redeem one such as I who was hostile and hateful toward you. I am undone by your love, and from here to eternity I will sing this wondrous story of the Savior’s love for me! I am loved, and that’s all that matters.

One more thing… “Who falls for love of God shall rise a star.” —Ben Johnson

“God counts people as righteous, not because of their works, but because of their faith in God who forgives their sins.” (Romans 4:)

Food For Thought: If you are a “doer” personality like me, you wrestle with this whole business of faith and works in your relationship with God. You feel good when you are doing things for God, and if you’re not careful, you can begin to see your identity in God and your value to God based on how much you do for him.

And that’s an easy trap to fall into because everything you’re ever taught tells you that what you get in life you’ve got to earn; that there’s no such thing as a free lunch; that if you work hard, success and recognition will come your way; no pain, no gain.

Doesn’t it seem that everything in our lives is predicated on performance? When you were growing up, you were told. “be good and you’ll get dessert…keep your room clean and you’ll get your allowance…get good grades and you’ll go to the best college.”

Society tells you, sculpt the right body, get the right hair style, wear the right clothes and you’ll get the right husband. Drive the right car, get the right job, make enough money and you’ll get a trophy wife. If you want a promotion, you work for it. If you want nice things, you’ve got to work hard to get it. If you want be tops in the company, you’ve got to out-work everybody else. If you want to succeed in life, you’ve got to make it happen. “Make it happen” — that’s the mantra of the human spirit. It’s deep within our genetic code.

And we’re pretty good at making it happen. We earn a respectable living, live in respectable homes, we drive respectable cars, our kids go to respectable schools. We’re self-made men and women. We’ve worked for it. We call this the Protestant work ethic, and it has served our country very well.

There’s only one problem with the Protestant work ethic: It doesn’t work in the kingdom of God. God doesn’t follow it! Here in Romans 4, we read that God didn’t accept Abraham because he worked for it; God accepted him because Abraham believed God.

“Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” (Romans 4:3)

Where, then do our works fit in? After all, an authentic faith ought to produce some fruit, shouldn’t it? Look at it this way: Salvation is the gift of God; saving faith is reaching out to receive that free gift; works is the response of gratitude to God for the gift. Here’s a paraphrase of how Paul puts it in Romans 4:10-11,

“Clearly, God accepted Abraham before his works (i.e., circumcision). Works were a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before the works.”

Salvation is the gift of God. Accepting it and orienting your life around it—that’s faith. Your works are simply a lifetime of saying thank you to God, not as a way to get his favor, but simply as the natural overflow of a heart that is mesmerized by God’s grace and love for you.

Now the good news is can that you can break free from the need to work so hard for God’ approval and acceptance by resting in what he has done for you. How? Let me spell out 4 practices using the word REST that will help you quit striving and start thriving in your salvation:

Reflect

First of all, simply reflect on God’s grace. Ephesians 2:8 says “it is by grace you are saved…” Ephesians 2:4-5 say, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead…”

In other words, you did nothing to save yourself and make you acceptable to God. You were dead! Do you know what a dead person can do to be un-dead. Nothing—except lay there and be dead! Your spiritual rebirth from spiritual deadness was all up to God. Just spend some time thinking about that.

Express

Secondly, express your gratitude to God for the gift of salvation. Everyday, include thanksgiving to God in prayer for your spiritual resurrection—your spiritual rebirth, God’s gift of your eternal life. Do you realize how marvelous this gift of salvation is? Ephesians 2:8 goes on to say that every aspect of your salvation “is the gift of God.” Even the faith to believe was God’s gift, according to the grammar of that verse. “It” in the Greek language is the same gender — not of “grace” nor of “saved” — but of “faith.” God even provided you the ability to believe—how awesome it that!

Stop

Thirdly, stop working for what you already have—God’s acceptance and approval! Ephesians 2:10 says, “you are God’s workmanship…” God does not approve of you based on your efforts—he does so based on Christ’s work. You were “created in Christ Jesus.” You are his masterpiece! So whenever you feel the need to work for favor—quit! You’re already favored. Just take delight in God and what he’s done for you through Jesus. Delighting in God is a very spiritual matter—and it’s appropriate! John Piper writes, “Delighting in God is the work of our lives. God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” So stop working for approval and enjoy God!

Trade

Trade your ‘to do’ list for God’s. Verse 10 says you were created, “to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do.” Once you’re freed from the need to work for approval, you can do the “good works” that arise out of grace. What are those good works? I don’t know, but as Augustine once said, “just love God and do as you please” and I have a feeling you’ll be just fine!

A flea was riding on an elephant’s ear when they came to a rickety old wooden bridge. And as they crossed, the bridge wobbled badly and almost collapsed. When they got the other side the flea said to the elephant, “Boy, we really shook that bridge, didn’t we!”

Here’s the deal, you’ve crossed over the bridge of faith ridding on someone else’s efforts. So quit trying to add to it—it’s already done. Quit trying to get there—you’re already there. Just rest and enjoy the ride.

Enjoy God and do your works for him out of the gratitude of your heart.

Prayer: Father, I can say nothing to you except “thank you!” I did nothing to contribute to my salvation—you did it all through Christ’s death. All I can do is accept it—and with gratitude I accept your free gift. And as a act of gratitude, I will humbly and happily serve your for the rest of my life and for all eternity. And as an offering of thanks today, I will rest in my salvation.

One more thing… Martin Luther said, “Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.”

“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)

Food For Thought: So many people get freaked out by the complexity of religion. They’re 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 about it.

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 junked up, messed up stuff that some misguided folks have turned our faith into. Christianity is simple—so simple, even a caveman can get it. God made sure of that. Here it is in a nutshell in Romans 3. Here the Apostle Paul, master theologian par excellence, 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 and 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 3:3:9-12

“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?

Prayer: Father, thank you for your mercy—you didn’t give me what I deserved. Thank you for your grace—you gave me what I didn’t deserve. You didn’t give me hell; you did give me heaven. Thank you for making it easy for me by making it hard on Jesus. Thank you for Christianity…thank you for Jesus…thank you for you!

One more thing… The great reformer Martin Luther wrote of his revelation that salvation is by faith alone, “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.”

“A true child of God is one whose heart is right with God.” (Romans 2:29)

Food For Thought: What makes a person truly right with God? That really is the question of questions, isn’t it!  Getting that one right is high stakes stuff—our eternity hinges on a correct answer.

Unfortunately, most people don’t give the question much thought.  They just go merrily about life, filling their days with activities that won’t matter one iota five minutes into eternity.  And then there are those who have given it some thought, but get it all wrong.  It is these folks that Paul is talking about here in Romans.  In this case, it was the Jews—people who were proud of the fact that they were God’s chosen people, proud of the fact that they had “the Law”, proud of the fact that they had the covenant of circumcision.  But make no mistake, Paul was challenging not just the Jews, but anyone who thinks that right standing with God is based on the mere outward observance of religious rules and regulations—like going to church, serving in a ministry, giving money to God’s work, being a good person and living by the Golden Rule.

A lot of people are climbing that ladder of religious effort in order to get to heaven, but their hearts are not right with God.  They are busy doing religious things, but will sadly find when they get to the top, the ladder they have been climbing has been leaning against the wrong wall.

What does it mean to have a heart that is right with God?  Well, Paul gives us a clue in the next part of the verse:  “It is a change of heart produced by God’s Spirit.”  Let’s break that down:

First, there has to be a sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life to produce change acceptable to God.  Getting our hearts right begins with the Spirit drawing us to God, and us cooperating, perhaps even inviting the Spirit to do his work in us.

Second, as the Spirit does his work in us, he leads us to repentance.  That means we have a change us heart that leads to a change of direction in our thinking and in our living.  Repentance means not just being sorry for our sins and asking God for his forgiveness; repentance means to have a godly sorrow for our sin, to humbly seek forgiveness that we have offended a holy God, to accept God’s offer of salvation through Jesus Christ by grace through faith, and then to turn from our sins and begin to live our lives in humble and grateful holiness unto the Lord.

And third, a change of heart has occurred when we reorient our lives to seek praise from God rather than living to please others or ourselves.

That’s what it means to be a child of God.  It is really pretty easy.  It doesn’t require fulfilling a long list of religious duties—it just means giving your heart to God and keeping it right before him.  And even then, that’s not all up to you.  God will help you with that too!

How great is that!

Prayer: Father, change my heart and make it right before you.  I present it to you this morning and renew my commitment to live my life to please you as my highest priority.  Keep me from slipping into the pride that develops from working so hard at my faith.  Rather, keep me continually aware and humbly grateful that my right standing with you is possible not through anything I can do, but only through what you have done through Jesus.   Lord, in response to your undeserved mercy and unmerited grace, I lay my heart before you—it is yours!  With all my heart I pray, amen.

One more thing… German Reformer Martin Luther declared, “Faith justifies not as a work, nor as a quality, nor as knowledge, but as assent of the will and firm confidence in the mercy of God.”

“As it is written: ‘God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’” (Romans 2:24)

Food For Thought: A family-values senator is found out to have kept the company of female “escorts.” A high profile evangelical lead is exposed for visiting a male prostitute. The divorce rate among church-goers is nearly the same rate as non church-goers. Believers are said to blend in ethically with just about everyone else in the workplace.

And we wonder why non-Christians tag us as hypocrites and despise our God!

It is so easy to get caught up in the culture wars and the Christian political movement and every other cause that bashes the evil practices and mindset of this world. And there is nothing necessarily wrong with those involvements or in being outspoken. But we’d do God and the Good News we represent a big favor if we’d clean up our act first.

How about this: Try living what you say you believe! Make sure your beliefs match your behavior. Don’t just talk about what would Jesus do—do it! We may not win the whole world for Christ, but we’d be a lot more effective than we are now. And perhaps we’d convince a few folks that this Good News is a pretty good deal.

Prayer: Father, help me to so live my life that others will see that the Christian faith is a can’t miss opportunity. May I always reflect your image well in this world. Cleanse, fill and empower me to be the living proof of your love for this lost world.

One more thing… St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.”