Tag Archives: Unshakeable

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You Are Not The Only One

Satan’s Weapon of Choice: Isolation

UNSHAKEABLE: Isolation is one of the chief tools of the Enemy to discourage God’s people. And if he can cause discouragement by tricking them into thinking they are all alone, he can more easily defeat them. Too many of God’s people live defeated lives precisely because “the roaring lion” has isolated them from the herd where they are more easily devoured by discouragement, doubt, and depression. Don’t let Satan use the “solitary confinement” method on you!

Don’t let Satan use the “solitary confinement” method on you. Stay connected to God by staying connect to God’s people! —Ray Noah

Unshakeable Living // Romans 11:4

I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

Isolation is one of the chief tools of the Enemy to discourage God’s people. And if he can cause discouragement by tricking them into thinking they are all alone, he can more easily defeat them. Too many of God’s people live defeated lives precisely because “the roaring lion” has isolated them from the herd where they are more easily devoured by discouragement, doubt, and depression. (1 Peter 5:8; cf., Elijah’s bout with depression in 1 Kings 19)

I know, only in hindsight, unfortunately, that Satan has occasionally used that age-old method on me—and with some success. You’d think after a few times of the old lion isolating me from the herd, I’d wise up to his ways. But time after time, he comes at me with the same strategy, and before I know it, I’m feeling like the Old Testament prophet, Elijah (Rom 11:3, cf. 1 Kings 19:10,14),

Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me.

He’s probably used the “solitary confinement” method on you, too—and all the while, you were totally unaware. You thought you were the only one who was standing for truth in that hostile environment. You were convinced you were the only believer at your work. You were sure you were the only one in the group who didn’t drink, do drugs, or treat sex as casually as a handshake. You thought that no one else struggled with that shameful sin like you did. You believed no one else could relate to your devastating failure—a broken marriage, a child who walked away from God, getting fired from your job, making what turned out to be a foolish investment, giving in yet again to that addictive behavior.

Well guess what? You’re not alone. Whether you are standing for your faith or struggling with sin or dealing with a devastation, you are in good company. We are all fellow strugglers. But here’s the deal: We are also overcomers. And there are a lot of us; God has made sure to keep plenty of us in reserve: “I have reserved for myself…” (Rom 11:4)

Think of that: Thousands of us, all flawed and in many cases feeble, but “more than conquerors.” In fact, that is our primary identity—more than strugglers, and we are more than conquerors. (Romans 8:37) And at the end of the day, we will overcome the Enemy by the word of our testimony and by the blood of the Lamb! (Revelation 12:11)

So be encouraged and refuse to let the devil lead you into a box canyon of isolation. Share your struggles with a trusted friend. Stay connected with a small group. Don’t lose the vital link between your faith and Christian fellowship. And just remember, “those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (2 Kings 6:16)

You don’t have to stand alone any longer. Jesus did that for you when he hung on the cross all by himself. Because of his isolation, you are now an inseparable part of God’s family, and you are inseparable from God’s love. (Romans 8:35, 38-39)

So hang in there—you are more than a conqueror! So am I!

Get Rooted: Are you connected? That is, do you have a group of Christians—it doesn’t have to be large; perhaps as small as three or four or as large as ten to fifteen—with whom you are doing life? Do you have a rhythm of regular get-togethers with them for fellowship, encouragement, discussion of God’s truth, accountability, and prayer? If not, begin to seek out a small group opportunity. If that is difficult for you, talk to your spiritual leaders about it and enlist their help.

Friend, this is absolutely critical to living an unshakeable life in uncertain times.

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Sin Doesn’t Stand A Chance

We Are Not Alone in the Fight

UNSHAKEABLE: We are not alone in our struggle with sin. We do not have to be disheartened by the overwhelming nature of the spiritual contest we are in. For sure, we experience a strong pull back into the slavery from which our sinful natures were freed. However, we have an infinitely stronger, incomparably more powerful, indefatigable Person who is dwelling within us. The Holy Spirit. With God’s Spirit residing in us and working for us, we cannot lose — if we will cooperate with him.

Unshakeable Living // Romans 8:11

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

I have heard this particular verse quoted most of my life — usually in the context of praying for the healing power of the Holy Spirit for a physical malady. I have received prayers, and I have offered prayers using this verse as a faith builder — that the same Spirit of God who raised the body of Jesus from death is dwelling in us, and we can expect that same resurrection power to bring divine life to our physical bodies as well. And to be sure, I believe that to be true.

What never hit me until this moment is the larger context in which we find this verse. Up to this point in Romans, Paul has been extensively contrasting the bondage to sin we experienced while living under the law with the freedom from sin we have living under the lordship of the resurrected Christ. Paul has shared his own struggle with sin — of doing what he shouldn’t and not doing what he should. And he has been quite realistic about this back-and-forth wrestling match that goes on in our lives between sin-bondage and Spirit-freedom.

Then he drops this truth on us: We are not alone in this struggle with sin. We do not have to be disheartened by the overwhelming nature of the spiritual contest we are in. For sure, we experience a strong pull back into the slavery from which our sinful natures were freed. However, we have an infinitely stronger, incomparably more powerful, indefatigable Person who is dwelling within us and is fighting for us. And that Person is the Holy Spirit, who is helping us to overcome sin.

With God’s Spirit residing in us and working for us, we cannot lose — if we will cooperate with him. If we work with and walk with the Holy Spirit, we then can tap into the same force he exerted in the lifeless body of Jesus to reconstitute each dead cell and catalyze life in his breathless spirit to produce something that had never happened before, something that the master of sin, the devil, never counted on: The first fully resurrected man.

Not only that, this first fully resurrected man was just the beginning. Now, we who accept Jesus by faith enter into that same resurrection life by that same indwelling resurrection Spirit. And the indwelling Spirit enables us to live in that same resurrection power that will not only heal our sick bodies, and not only guarantee our immortality but will empower us each and every day to resist the pull of sin and live the victorious, overcoming Christian life.

Think about that! On this day, at this very moment, the same Holy Spirit that coursed through the body of our Lord and brought him back to life again is coursing through you.

Wow! Suffering, sickness, and sin — especially sin — doesn’t stand a chance!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 8:1-39. Meditate on Romans 8:1-2, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” And memorize Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be.”

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Don’t Tempt Me

Finally Free To Simply Enjoy God’s Grace

UNSHAKEABLE: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your irresistible compulsion? Maybe it’s a box of Dunkin Doughnuts — perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe it’s the letters S*A*L*E — perhaps you’re an over spender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet — perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Could it be your compulsion is alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping or incessant social media consumption? Maybe it’s the joy of passing judgment on other doughnut-eaters, which, reveals your battle with a critical spirit. Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. How hopeless we feel at times! So, who will rescue us from the doughnuts?” Jesus will!

Unshakeable Living // 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 straightforward, which was simply this: “I do what I shouldn’t and I don’t do what I should — man, am I in trouble!”

Can you relate to Paul? I sure can. He was in a wrestling match with sin, and sin was whupping up on him. It was frustrating because Paul knew what he shouldn’t be doing — yet he was drawn to sin like a mouse to a cheese-laden trap or an insect to a bug zapper or bees to honey — pick your metaphor.

Let me ask you this: Where are you most vulnerable to temptation? What represents your cheese-laden mousetrap? Maybe it’s a box of Dunkin Doughnuts — perhaps you are an overeater. Maybe it’s the letters S*A*L*E — perhaps you’re an overspender. Maybe it’s an adult site on the Internet — perhaps you’ve got a compulsion for porn. Could it be your compulsion is alcohol or drugs or gambling or gossiping or griping or incessant social media consumption? Maybe it’s the joy of passing judgment on other cheese-eaters, which, reveals your battle with a critical spirit.

Each of us has an area where we do what we shouldn’t and don’t do what we should. As Paul might say, “What a sicko I am! Who will rescue me from the cheese?”

Jesus will! That’s also 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 I must look for it and walk through it!

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 him with something that would tear him away from his 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 God’s Word systematically, meditating on it daily, and memorizing it strategically.

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 seems, the amazing thing is, God hears those prayers. And he provides a way out.

Who will rescue you from this body of death? Who is going to keep you away from the Dunkin Doughnuts?

Thank God! Jesus Christ will rescue me. (Rom 7:25)

Get Rooted: Read Romans 7:1-25. 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.” Throughout Romans, it seems as if Paul has been pounding on the law. So was the law bad? Obviously not! So if the law is not bad, yet it doesn’t lead to true righteousness before God, what is its purpose then? Do a word search in Romans and Galatians

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The Great Breakup

Finally Free To Simply Enjoy God’s Grace

UNSHAKEABLE: The law, itself, was not evil. In fact, the law was “holy, right and good.” (Rom 7:12) But the Old Testament law could not deliver people from their sin. And its whole purpose was to remind people under its demands of that very impossibility. God, the Lawgiver, would have to step in himself and do what we, ourselves, couldn’t do through our efforts to obey the law. You see, if God’s own law cannot rescue us from sin, how much less can any other human law or religious demand or personal effort rescue us! Only grace from the Lawgiver that comes through his Son, Jesus Christ, can get that job done for us. And best of all, under that grace we are divorced from the obligation of even trying to live up to the impossible standards of the law. Rather, by that great breakup we are free to simply enjoy what God has provided. And that, my friend, is life!

The law of grace

Unshakeable Living // Romans 7:4 (Message)

When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Whoever “they” are, they’re right. Whatever else, good or bad, painful or pleasurable we might experience from a breakup, the one thing it does is to release those involved from the responsibilities of the relationship.

In this opening section of Romans 7, Paul uses the illustration of a marriage breakup — in this case, a breakup caused by the death of a spouse — to illustrate a Christ-follower’s release from the obligations of the Old Testament law. Now keep in mind that Paul’s primary purpose is not to establish a theology on divorce and remarriage — so don’t go there. What he has to say about that must be considered in the light of the rest of scriptural teaching on the matter.

Rather, Paul is using this marriage breakup illustration to make a different point. And the point is that when a marriage relationship is broken apart by death, the living partner is morally, emotionally, and physically free to pursue another relationship. What bound the person before — which would include all the bad baggage that often attends human relationships — is now null, void, and ineffective. In principle, the living spouse is completely free. Any leftover obligation the living spouse carries is empowered only by the credibility they, and only they, voluntarily place in that obligation.

So as it relates to the Old Testament law, when Christ died those old obligations were completely canceled. His death is representative of our death to the law, and therefore our death to the sin the law revealed and empowered. In Christ, we have gone through a painful, but good breakup with the law that leads to sin and death.

Paul’s illustration here, and the teaching that follows, wonderfully explains the profound contrast between that impossibly burdensome life under the law with the new and life-giving relationship made possible by grace. Through Christ’s death, we have been divorced from the old and are now married to the new — hallelujah! Watchman Nee describes it well in his book, The Normal Christian Life:

Grace means that God does something for me; law means that I do something for God. God has certain holy and righteous demands which He places upon me: that is law. Now if law means that God requires something of me for their fulfillment, then deliverance from law means that He no longer requires that from me, BUT HIMSELF PROVIDES IT. Law implies that God requires me to do something for Him; deliverance from law implies that He exempts me from doing it, and that in grace He does it Himself.

Now keep in mind that the law, itself, was not evil. (Rom 7:14) In fact, the law was “holy, right and good.” (Rom 7:12) What Paul is revealing is simply that the Old Testament law cannot deliver people from their sin. And the whole purpose of the law was to remind people under its demands of that very impossibility. God, the Lawgiver, would have to step in himself and do what we, ourselves, couldn’t do through our efforts to obey the law.

So what all of that means for you and me is that if God’s own law cannot rescue us from sin, how much less can any other human law or religious demand or personal effort rescue us! Only grace from the Lawgiver that comes through his Son, Jesus Christ, can get that job done for us.

And best of all, under grace we are divorced from the obligation of even trying to live up to the impossible standards of the law. Rather, by that great breakup we are free to simply enjoy what God has provided. And that, my friend, is life!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 7:1-25 and 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.” Throughout Romans, it seems as if Paul has been pounding on the law. Was the law bad? Obviously not! So if the law is not bad, yet it doesn’t lead to true righteousness before God, what is its purpose then? Do a word search in Romans and Galatians (www.biblegateway.com is a good source) and read each context in which law is mentioned and see if you can come away with a better understanding of the purpose of the law that was revealed in Old Testament scripture.

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Cost Benefit Analysis

Before You Sin, Count the Cost

UNSHAKEABLE: One of the strongest antidotes to the ongoing and habitual sin in my life is the spiritual discipline of doing a cost-benefit analysis before I commit it the sin. That’s what Paul is asking us to do in Romans 6:21. If in everything we do — whether it be acts of unrighteousness, or simple errors of judgment, or the outright, and deliberate plunge into sin — the inalterable law of sowing and reaping is in effect (so says Galatians 6:8-9), then wouldn’t it be wise to first stop to consider the outcome of our actions?

Cost Benefit Analysis

Unshakeable Living // Romans 6:21

What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!

Most of us struggle with it; a blessed few don’t — or at least that’s what they say. I’m talking, of course, about our struggle with sin. Even though we have been redeemed from our sins, credited with Jesus’ righteousness, set free from the law of sin and death, given a new identity, and set on the path to a glorious destiny in Christ, we tend to drift back into the sins that once held us in bondage before our salvation. That’s how powerful sin is and how susceptible we are to its pull.

Now please understand that I am not excusing the inevitable surrender to sin. I am only explaining it. Sin seems to win a fair share of skirmishes with us, and if it weren’t for God’s grace and the reality of unlimited forgiveness (1 John 1:9), we’d be toast!

But as satisfying as grace and forgiveness are, I want more! I want to be free from all sin. I don’t want to lose any more skirmishes. I don’t want sin to have any more dominion over me — not in the least.

Now is that really possible? Is my total and complete sanctification possible? Can I attain sinless perfection in this life? Of course, our positional sanctification before God is an accomplished fact — remember, we’ve been credited with Christ’s righteousness, and as a result, we can’t get any more righteous than that before God! What I’m talking about here is practical sanctification. Can I be completely free from sin and holy in my everyday, moment-by-moment life in my Christian walk?

Some would say yes (the sinless perfection proponents); most would say that’s not possible—and I tend to side with the latter. But here’s what I do know for sure: One of the strongest antidotes to the ongoing and habitual sin in my life is the spiritual discipline of doing a cost-benefit analysis before I commit it the sin. That’s what Paul is asking us to do in Romans 6:21. If in everything we do — whether it be acts of unrighteousness, or simple errors of judgment, or the outright, and deliberate plunge into sin — the inalterable law of sowing and reaping is in effect (so says Galatians 6:8-9), then wouldn’t it be wise to first stop to consider the outcome of our actions?

Especially sin, as Paul makes clear in Romans 6:23, where he reminds us of the outcome of sin: “the wages of sin is death…” Not a pleasant outcome, is it? Ultimately, those who continue in sin will suffer eternal separation from God in a Christless eternity. But even for those of us who have been redeemed, not making an all-out effort to overcome sin will mean death to the fullness and favor of God that he’s promised to those who overcome. Sin blocks God’s best in our lives. And to me, that’s death!

I don’t want that, do you? No, you and I want life: “But the gift of God is eternal life,” verse 23 goes on to say. And, my friend, eternal life doesn’t just start the minute after you die. You see, each time we say no to sin there is a bit more of eternity that is unleashed in our hearts in the here and now. And the benefit of surrendering to God far outweighs any momentary high that comes from surrendering to sin — especially in light of the fact that sin’s “high” fades in a heartbeat, leaving in its wake only guilt, pain, and forfeiture of the blessings of obedience.

So, in light of that, what say we begin to practice a spiritual discipline? I will, and I hope you’ll join me. Before we pull the trigger on that next temptation, let’s just first run it through a little cost-benefit analysis.

My guess is, if we can commit ourselves to that simple practice, we aren’t going to be committing too many sins, because sin ain’t gonna be looking so good after all!

Get Rooted: Read Romans 6:1-23, then memorize Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Compare Romans 6:21 with 6:23. Do a cost-benefit analysis of the particular sin that you seem to struggle with on a recurring basis.

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Give Me Chastity — Just Not Yet

Get Your Parts Right

UNSHAKEABLE: 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 costly investment of grace in your life. 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 that in response, God deserves you to give your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for his 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.

Give Me Chastity — Just Not Yet

Unshakeable Living // Romans 6:13

Use your every part of your body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God.

A little girl burst through the door 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 began 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 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 — all of them — by offering them every day in every way for the glory of God.

But do you? Is your brain an 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 TikTok reels you spend mind-numbing hours watching, 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 to those places? What about your heart — have you closely guarded it, since it is the wellspring of life? (Prov 4:23) And your “vowels,” I mean, your bowels — what about what you take into your body? It is the temple of the Holy Spirit, after all. (1 Cor 6:18-20) 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 a different kind of slavery: slavery to 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 (Rom 6:10-11).

Have you consecrated every part of your body as an instrument of righteousness to 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 costly investment of grace in your life.

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 that in response, God deserves you 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.

Now I’ll admit, what I’m suggesting won’t be easy. In fact, it will be the toughest thing you ever do. (See Romans 7:14-20 if you don’t believe me.) 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; he surrendered his desires will to God, 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.”

Will! So the question is, will you? 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.

Get Rooted: Read Romans 6:1-23, then memorize Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Compare Romans 6:21 with 6:23. Do a cost-benefit analysis of the particular sin that you seem to struggle with on a recurring basis.

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Life Sentence

You Get To Choose Your Sentence — Eternal Death or Eternal Life

UNSHAKEABLE: If you are a follower of Christ, you already know that Christ’s substitutionary death commuted your own eternal death sentence and replaced it with an eternal life sentence. So what’s the big deal; how should this affect your life today? Well, among other things, when sin (both your sin nature and your individual acts of sin) tries to remind you that you are still under the death penalty of Adam’s disobedience (which, by the way, is so paradoxical: the world says there is no guilt while at the same time, the god of this world reminds you that you’re as guilty as sin), you can remind sin that Someone else paid the death penalty for you. You were a “Dead man [or woman] walking” but you have been declared “not guilty!” You have walked out of sin-prison a free man or woman by the gracious act of Another.

Life Sentence

Unshakeable Living // Romans 5:17

For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.

The problem is simple — yours and mine: We’re dead men walking. We are all under a death sentence because of Adam’s sin:

You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. (Rom 5:12, MSG)

Since Adam was the first human being created and, therefore the head of the human race, through this one man’s disobedience sin entered the genetic code of all humanity. That might seem unfair, but that’s the way it works. Every human being, without exception, even the best among us — the sincere, good-hearted, law-abiding citizen — is horribly infected with sin-tainted DNA:

Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. (Romans 5:14, MSG)

And even though there was no real accounting for sin before the Law of Moses was revealed (“Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break” Rom 5:13), the consequence of sin still reigned: Death for all—both literal, physical death and spiritual, eternal separation from God. What God created human beings to experience and enjoy — an intimate relationship and forever life in his presence — was erased the moment Adam chose to disobey God’s commands.

Yet as horrible as this situation is, the good news is that through another man’s obedience, Jesus Christ, our death sentence was commuted to a “life” sentence — a restoration of intimacy with God and forever life in his presence. You see, Jesus is the last Adam (“The Scriptures tell us, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living person.’ But the last Adam that is, Christ — is a life-giving Spirit” 1 Cor 15:45), and as the head of a spiritual race, our rebirth through him permanently alters our genetic code with life — eternal life that cannot be taken from us. Just as the first man’s singular act of disobedience (eating from a forbidden tree) had the universal effect of trumping life with death, so the last man’s singular act of obedience (dying on a tree) trumped death with life eternal for all who believe:

If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? (Rom 5:17, MSG)

Of course, if you are already a follower of Christ, you know all this. So why does Paul keep bringing this up here in Romans? What’s the big deal; how should this affect your life today?

Well, for one thing, it ought to affect your attitude toward people who are far from God. They are genetically infected with Adam’s sin-tainted DNA and therefore sentenced to death. And there is just one way out: only rebirth into eternal life through Jesus Christ can rewire their Adamic genetic code. Don’t ever forget that! In an age that pressures us into believing that there are many ways to God, that if you are just good enough and sincere enough, then in the end, you’ll be just fine, remember the truth: In Adam, all die! But in Jesus, all live!

Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right:

Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous. (Rom 5:18-19, MSG)

And for another thing, when sin (both your sin nature and your individual acts of sin) tries to remind you that you are still under the death penalty for Adam’s disobedience (which, by the way, is so paradoxical: the world says there is no guilt while at the same time, the god of this world reminds you that you’re as guilty as sin), you can remind sin that Someone else paid the death penalty for you. Your death sentence has been commuted to eternal life!

Should that make a difference in your life today? You bet! You were a “Dead man [or woman] walking” but you have been declared “not guilty!” You have walked out of sin-prison a free man or woman by the gracious act of Another.

Should that make a difference in your life today? You tell me!

Get Rooted: Write out a simple prayer of profound gratitude to God for the commutation of your death sentence to a life sentence of eternal joy in the presence of the One who made it possible by his substitutionary death on the cross.