Category Archives: Romans

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Just As If I’d Never Sinned

This Is THE Good News

SYNOPSIS: Justification—just as if I had never sinned! 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. That is really good news! And you received this free gift of God’s grace by faith 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.

Just as if i'd never sinned

Moments With God // Romans 3:23-24

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.

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 of a highly complex theological 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. Not only were you pardoned from receiving the just punishment reserved for all lawbreakers, but your guilt was also removed as well. 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, but you were also 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.

Take A Moment: 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.” Now, meditate on the contrasting horror of universal sin and the hope of eternal redemption that Paul speaks of here in Romans 3. Then 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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Somebody Save Me From Me

Learn To Lean Into The Great Rescuer

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should, and like the Apostle Paul, we cry out in exasperation, “O wretch that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” That’s the question, isn’t it: who will rescue me since I don’t have much of a track record of self-rescue? The answer, Paul discovered, was the Great Rescuer: “Thanks be to God—it is through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Moments With God // Romans 7:15,19,24

For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do… For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice… O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Huh? Did you catch that? Paul had a convoluted way of saying something pretty straightforward, which was simply this: “I do what I shouldn’t and I don’t do what I should—man, I’m in big trouble!”

Can you relate to Paul? I sure can. He was in a wrestling match with sin, and sin was smacking him around. It was frustrating because Paul knew what he shouldn’t be doing—yet he was drawn to sin like a moth to the flame.

Let me ask you this: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your moth-attracting-flame? Maybe it’s a whole container of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey®—perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe you are a sucker for anything that says, “Red Tag Sale”—perhaps you are an over-spender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet—perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Perhaps it’s alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping.

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. “What a sicko I am! Who will rescue me from the Chunky Monkey®?” That is the question: who will rescue me since I don’t have a track record of self-rescue?

Jesus will! That’s what Paul said in Romans 7:25, “Thanks be to God—it’s through Jesus Christ our Lord!” When Jesus died, he broke the power of sin, so it no longer has a hold on us. Through the power of the resurrection, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God has provided a way out from under every temptation:

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Did you catch that? Your battle with temptation is winnable. The last part of the verse says, “But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out.”

That’s good news. There’s always an escape route—always. When you’re tempted, God himself will provide a way out; He will make a way. God has provided a door! But here’s the deal: you must look for it and walk through it!

So, just what are those escape routes?

One way of escape is to immerse yourself in Scripture. Psalm 119:9 & 11 says, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word…I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”

That’s how Jesus battled temptation in the wilderness. Every time the tempter came at Jesus with something that would tear Him away from the Father, Jesus came back at Satan with the truth of scripture. There is no more potent weapon against temptation in your life than in reading systematically, meditating daily, and memorizing strategically God’s Word.

Another escape route from temptation is to become accountable to another believer, especially for your particular weakness. Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We need to bring our temptation into the light of accountability to other people—as difficult as that may be.

Proverbs 27:5-6 says, “Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” You would do yourself a huge favor by finding someone with whom you can be accountable for your weakness.

And yet another way out is to ask God to deliver you daily from the tempter. Jesus taught us to pray a daily prayer that acknowledges both our weakness and our need for divine power in this area: “Deliver us from the evil one.” (Matthew 6:13) As simple as that sounds, the amazing thing is, God hears those prayers. And He provides a way out.

Who will rescue you from this body of death? As Paul says in Romans 7:25,

Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me.

Take A Moment: Memorize Romans 7:24-25, “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.”

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Of Filthy Rags, Transformed Hearts, and God’s Stunning Grace

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less than Jesus’ Blood and Righteousness

SYNOPSIS: Do you worry a little—or a lot—about being righteous and morally perfect before God? Well, relax! First off, you can’t, and second, Jesus did it for you. You can’t gain what you’ve already been given. God accepts Christ’s efforts on your behalf as good enough, so you don’t have to be good enough. All you have to do is accept it, believe it, and conform your life to it! In other words, live the rest of your life as one unrepayable debt of gratitude to God for His grace. Now that we’ve settled that, remember that it is not only by grace that we are saved, it is also by grace that we can live the saved life! So, go live like it!

Moments With God // Claim: Romans 10:9-10

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

You cannot be saved by your good works. Period! No matter how hard you try, your “good” is not good enough for the perfectly holy and completely righteous God. Nor can you be saved through an alternative, less stringent means, for only through God is eternal salvation possible.

Moreover, you cannot be saved by your moral perfection—no matter how moral you are or how close to moral you get. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah pointed out, your righteousness is about as good as a “snot rag”. (Isaiah 64:6). I have actually cleaned that up a bit, because the Hebrew words for filthy rags, ukabeged ehdim, according to some scholars, literally means, “like as rags of menstruation.”

Sorry if that disgusts you, but it’s Scripture—so blame Isaiah. The point is, both our acts of righteousness and the quality of righteousness that we hope they produce, are disgusting to God. So if you are disgusted by Isaiah’s language, think of how God is repulsed by our efforts to get him to save us.

So what hope is there for our salvation? Well, no hope resides within us. None whatsoever. Ephesians 2:1 says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” All a dead person can do is lay there and be dead, let alone try to be righteous before God.

No, our righteousness—and let’s be clear, we do have to be righteous to be acceptable to God—comes from Christ alone. You see, God sent his Son to die on the cross—hanging there as our sin—in order to pay the just punishment for sin that we deserved. That is our only hope, that Jesus became sin—our sin—and in so doing, he likewise became our righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it well,

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

How dishonoring to God’s grace and Christ’s atonement when we, therefore, try to save ourselves by our acts of righteousness and our efforts at moral perfection. The sooner we realize that the sooner we will discover salvation by grace alone through faith, as Paul spoke about in Philippians 3:8-9,

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them [our best efforts] rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

It is only through the power of Christ’s resurrection and our death to self (“becoming like him in his death…” Phil 3:10-11) that our heart—the core of who we are, that which represents every fiber of our existence—will get transformed. And it is out of a transformed heart, and only that, that our tongue can confess Jesus is Lord.

Then, and only then, are we saved.

As the hymn writer said so simply yet so beautifully, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” So relax about trying to be righteous and morally perfect! Jesus did it for you. God accepts Christ’s efforts on your behalf as good enough, so you don’t have to be good enough. All you have to do is accept it, believe it, and conform your life to it!

Now, in light of what God has done, go live the rest of your life as one unrepayable debt of gratitude to God for His grace.

Take A Moment: Try memorizing and meditating on Romans 10:9-10 each day this week: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.”

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God Has Befriended You

SYNOPSIS: As you celebrate New Year’s Day—and the new opportunities lie ahead—take a moment to envision what it means to have God as your friend in 2022. Since he has graciously befriended you, what difference does that—should that—make in how you approach your work, how you make your plans, how you handle your fears, how you manage your emotions, and in an all-inclusive sense, how you do life? Obviously, it should make all the difference! My friend, since God is for you, who or what can be against you!

Moments With God // Claim: Romans 8:31-32

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

One of my favorite hymns—yeah, I still love them—was written by the German composer, Joachim Neander in the 1600s. It still resonates with worshipers of all ages some 400 years later. I particularly relish this line in the fourth verse,

Ponder anew what the Almighty can do, if with His love He befriends thee.

Think about that for a moment—it will change your day, not to mention the New Year ahead. As a matter of fact, it will change the trajectory of the rest of your life. The only thing I would change in this otherwise magnificent hymn is the one little word in the second line, “if.” For me, and anyone else who has been redeemed by God’s marvelous grace, that word rather should be, “since”! “If” speaks of possibility, “since” reflects reality!

God has indeed befriended us, amazing as that sounds. If you are having trouble grasping that, go back and read the entirety of Romans 8. What you will find there are some jaw-dropping realities of what God has already done for you through Christ Jesus. Not the least of which is simply yet powerfully this: God has clearly and deliberately stated that he is for you! And, as Paul logically concludes, since that is true, nothing and no one can be against you.

Does that sound like someone has overpromised you something? If it were simply another human being making that claim, I would be suspicious of their ability to deliver on that pledge. But keep in mind the One declaring this vow to you is God himself! And here is the Almighty’s certification: He offered Jesus, literally, through his virgin birth, sinless life and sacrificial death, as the guarantee that his promise is 100% good.

Now since it is firmly established that you and I are friends of the Almighty, the realities of blessing, protection, provision, success, and satisfaction in the days, months, and year to come, along with eternity for that matter, are unlimited—limited only by our unbelief.

So, indeed, take a moment to ponder anew what it means to walk in moment-by-moment friendship with your Almighty Father. I guarantee this: it will make all your future moments a whole lot brighter.

Praise to the Lord,
The Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him,
For He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear,
Now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord,
Who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings,
Yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen
How all your longings have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord,
Who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness
And mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord,
O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath,
Come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen
Sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

Yes, for gladly we adore Him. How could we not!

Take A Moment: As you celebrate New Year’s Day—and the new opportunities lie ahead—take a moment to envision what it means to have God as your friend. Since he has graciously befriended you, what difference does that—should that—make in how you approach your work, how you make your plans, how you handle your fears, how you manage your emotions and in an all-inclusive sense, how you do life? Obviously, it should make all the difference! As a reminder, write on a 3×5 card: God is my friend! Now for the next week, tape that card to your mirror so that you see every morning before you leave for the day and every evening before you go to sleep that God is for you.

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The Powerful Word

I Am Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

SYNOPSIS: The gospel is the power of God that saves us—past, present and future. For that reasons, not only should we not be ashamed of it, but  we should be actively and even aggressively enthusiastic about it. Why wouldn’t we be? It is the only hope for humanity—which means on a more personal and practical level, it is the only hope for your unsaved loved ones, the people you work with, go to school with and those who live next door to you. It is the only hope for real people you really care about. The Good News, written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is now waiting to be expressed through your lips and by your life.

Project 52 – Weekly Scripture Memory // Romans 1:16

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

I echo Paul’s words: I am not ashamed of the Gospel! Why should I be? It is the very power of Almighty God to transform a life for all eternity. The Good News—written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is what saves us.

The Good News saves us in the sense that we are rescued from our sins and brought into the forever family of God. We commonly refer to that as salvation; being born again. The Good News also saves us in the sense that day-by-day in this present life, we are being transformed by it into the very likeness of Jesus Christ. That is what we refer to as progressive holiness. And the Good News saves us in the sense that when this earthly journey is complete and we stand before Almighty God, we will be welcomed into the eternal kingdom. That, of course, we longingly refer to as our ultimate and final redemption.

For those reasons, not only I should not be ashamed of the Gospel—and neither should you—but you and I should be actively, even aggressively, enthusiastic about it. Again, why wouldn’t we be? It is the only hope for mankind—which means on a more personal and practical level, it is the only hope for your unsaved loved ones, the people you work with, go to school with and those who live next door to you. It is the only hope for real people you care a great deal for.

The Good News, written, proclaimed and revealed in the person of Jesus Christ is now waiting to be expressed through your lips and by your life. Other than its proclamation by preachers, that is the most compelling way it gets proclaimed these days—exemplified in word and deed through you. So let’s quit keeping the Good News to ourselves and begin looking for opportunities to slip it into our conversations at every chance we get.

I like how Eugene Peterson translates Romans 1:16-19 in The Message:

It’s news I’m most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God’s powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him, starting with Jews and then right on to everyone else! God’s way of putting people right shows up in the acts of faith, confirming what Scripture has said all along: “The person in right standing before God by trusting him really lives.”

The Good News really is good news—and it’s powerful. So proudly proclaim it today! You will be glad you did—and someone who might hear and respond to it will be even more glad you did!

“This is the new evangelism we need. It is not better methods, but better men and women who know their Redeemer from personal experience…who see his vision and feel his passion for the world…who want only for Christ to produce his life in and through them according to his own good pleasure.” ~Robert E. Coleman

Reflect & Apply: Lynn Thomas wrote, “I’ve often thought the first class we should teach on evangelism should probably be, ‘How to Make New Friends.’” Perhaps establishing some new “redemptive” friendships could be your first step toward a more evangelistic life.

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Of Filthy Rags And Transformed Hearts

Our Righteousness Comes From Christ Alone

Our righteousness—and let’s be clear, we do have to be righteous to be acceptable to God—comes from Christ alone. You see, God sent his Son to die on the cross—hanging there as our sin—in order to pay the just punishment for sin that we deserved. That is our only hope, that Jesus became sin—our sin—and in so doing, he likewise became our righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it well, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” It is only through the power of Christ’s resurrection and our death to self (Philippians 3:10-11) that our heart—the core of who we are, that which represents every fiber of our existence—will get transformed. And ?it is out of a transformed heart, and only that, that our tongue can confess Jesus is Lord. Then, and only then, are we saved.

The Journey: ~Romans 10:9-10

That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

You cannot be saved by your good works—no matter how hard you try, your “good” is not good enough for the perfectly holy and completely righteous God who alone grants salvation.

Nor can you be saved by your moral perfection—no matter how moral or how perfect you are. As the Old Testament prophet Isaiah points out, your righteousness is about as good as a “snot rag”. (Isaiah 64:6). I have actually cleaned that up a bit, because the Hebrew words for filthy rags, ukabeged ehdim, literally means, “like as rags of menstruation.” (NIV Study Bible Notes)

Sorry if that disgusts you, but it’s Scripture—so blame Isaiah. The point being, both our acts of righteousness, and the quality of righteousness that we hope they produce, are disgusting to God. So if you are disgusted by Isaiah’s language, think of how God is repulsed by our efforts to get him to save us.

So what hope is there for our salvation? Well, no hope resides within us. None whatsoever. Ephesians 2:1 says “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.” All a dead person can do is lay there and be dead, let alone try to be righteous before God.

No, our righteousness—and let’s be clear, we do have to be righteous to be acceptable to God—comes from Christ alone. You see, God sent his Son to die on the cross—hanging there as our sin—in order to pay the just punishment for sin that we deserved. That is our only hope, that Jesus became sin—our sin—and in so doing, he likewise became our righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says it well,

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

How dishonoring to God’s grace and Christ’s atonement when we therefore try to save ourselves by our acts of righteousness and our efforts at moral perfection. The sooner we realize that, the sooner we will, like Paul in Philippians 3:8-9,

“Consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them [our best efforts] rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.”

It is only through the power of Christ’s resurrection and our death to self (Philippians 3:10-11) that our heart—the core of who we are, that which represents every fiber of our existence—will get transformed. And it is out of a transformed heart, and only that, that our tongue can confess Jesus is Lord.

Then, and only then, are we saved.

So relax about trying to be righteous and morally perfect! Jesus did it for you. God accepts Christ’s efforts on your behalf as good enough, so you don’t have to be good enough. All you have to do is accept it, believe it, and conform your life to it!

This week, read Romans 10:1-21, and then memorize Romans 10:9-10,

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved.

Consider this: Why are these verses such a centerpiece to the Christian message? How does your own view of salvation line up with what Paul has written? Do you think your Christian friends have a good grasp on what it takes to be saved, and if not, how can you engage them in a spiritual conversation about this matter?

A Simple Prayer:

God, thank you for saving me. It was not because of anything I had done, nor was it because of my own worthiness. Simply out of your mercy and grace, you saved me through Christ’s sacrificial death and glorious resurrection. My salvation is completely on you, none of it is on my. I am grateful!.
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From Your Lips to God’s Ears

Holy Spirit, Make Sense of Our Senseless Prayers

Do you ever feel inadequate to come before a holy God in prayer? Have you witnessed prayer warriors interceding with such ease that it intimidates you because you could certainly never pray like that? Do you ever run out of words when you pray? When it comes to prayer, do you feel as Ringo Star once sang, “it don’t come easy.” Guess what! That’s okay! When I don’t know how to pray or what to pray or feel so incredibly inadequate to pray, the Holy Spirit dwelling within me does the praying for me. He takes my inarticulate, jumbled thoughts and raises them to the Father above, making perfect sense of the things that are running through my mind and burdening my heart. My prayers don’t have to be smooth, they don’t have to have perfect grammatical structure, they don’t even have to make sense. They just need to come from a heart that is crying out for the Father’s best in my life, and the indwelling Spirit does the rest.

A Simple Prayer for Praying More Powerfully:

God, through the indwelling presence of your Holy Spirit, take my inarticulate thoughts, my unclear mind, my annoying insecurities about being good enough in prayer, perfect them and bring them near to your heart. Turn my feeble efforts to pray into mountain moving prayers. As I offer what’s in my heart to you, I will thank you in advance for turning them into that which glorifies you. Amen.