Romans

Romans 3 - I think the biggest deception out there is that we can somehow be good "enough". I read somewhere that even if we were to attribute the rapist and murderer in the deepest valley and ourselves on the highest peak neither of us would be able to reach the stars of Heaven. We have ALL sinned and fallen short BUT... We can all be justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. How deep and how wide is the love of God and our Savior.

Romans 4 - "Credited to him as righteousness... Who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for justification." With out the law there is no transgression, keeping of the law was never meant to save us. The law was given to show us our sin, so that we would be aware of our debt, so that we receive the justification that comes through Jesus. Jesus sets us free from the penalty and bondage of sin. We are FREE in Him. We too live in a country that grants us great freedoms. Out of great love and respect for the cost our freedoms, may we never use our freedom as a license to sin.

Romans 5 - Thing about this for a minute... "Having been justified by faith we have peace with God... We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand..." We stand in grace, permanently. We did not simply receive grace when we were saved and now must work toward perfection. We are from then, till now and forever will be rooted in and covered with grace! Do you understand what that means? Can we ever fully understand?? You don't have to prove your worthiness, God adores you. You have unlimited, open door access to Him and every time you come He is overjoyed to spend time with you, he is not keeping a record of wrong doing. Take a moment, think about this. Picture the door to His throne room open. You can feel the power of the Almighty having charge over everything radiating from inside, you quietly, even sheepishly peek around the door, perhaps embarrassed by the amount of time since you last came to speak with Him, His head snaps up, he looks right at you, a smile spreads across his face, he jumps up and runs to you!! You stand before him in grace!! Sweet amazing grace!!!

Romans 6 Yesterday I was reminded about the access I have to God and the grace that I stand in through Jesus Christ, but today his word asks this question of me, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Certainly not! What motivates you to live a holy life? In Jesus we too have died to sin, it longer can hold us,we have been set free!! We can walk in newness of life! We are no longer prisoners of the sin that leads to death! Thanks be to God we are now slaves to righteousness!! He is our new good and wonderful master! Let his unfathomable love and grace motivate us to live a life "holy" devoted to Him! 

Romans 7 Just as we have been set free from sin, we have been set free from the law through Jesus Christ! We don't need to strive to seek God's approval through our personal performance. The law's job was to make us aware of our sin, show us our need for a Savior. "O wretched man, am I! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Thanks be to God! Jesus will!! The word wretched here has the idea of being worn out, exhausted from the hard labor of toil... Toil of trying to be good enough. Thanks be to God! Jesus makes us good enough. Obeying the law can't save you it can only help the innocent, it argues against the guilty. I had a dear friend tell me once that she had decided to become a Buddist because all she would need to do is be a good person. Why carry the burden/lie of trying to save ourselves when Jesus will do it for us! We can be set free from the bondage of sin and the condemnation of the law and belong to Him who was raised from the dead!


I spent most of the night thinking about what I have learned the last couple of days in Romans 6 and 7. The joy that comes from knowing we have been set free from sin and the law. But there are areas in my life where I continue to feel like a prisoner of sin. Like Paul, I know what is right and I desperately want to do what is right but I keep doing wrong. Why do I keep struggling? Because the members of my body are waging war against my mind and making me a prisoner of sin. I am told to put the old self to death daily BUT HOW??? Paul paints a picture of the "new self" we have in Christ chained to the "old self" (our self gratifying flesh). As a prisoner in his time would often be chained to a dead rotting body as part of their punishment. Ultimately at the coming of Christ, he will rescue us from these bodies of death once and for all. But until then we CAN live in freedom, by putting the old self to death DAILY and following Him. This is what I laid awake thinking about, how do we tangibly do it! Jesus loves us too much not to tell us so, I diverted from my usual study this morning to find the answer. Jesus prayed in John 17:17 "Sanctify them by your truth, your Word is truth." Paul said to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, Jesus said we would be sanctified (the original word, hagiazo meaning to be separated from profane things and dedicated to God, to be purified) through the Word. It's that simple. His Word. Have you been set free from sin and the law by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior but continue to wrestle and struggle with your flesh making you a prisoner to sin? The answer is simple you will be purified by His Word. Expose yourself to it every single day through personal Bible study, group Bible study and a solid Bible teaching church. Roll around in it, soak in it, get all pruney in it! There is freedom waiting for us in the daily study of His Word!

Romans 8:1-18 we left Paul in chapter 7 knowing what is right, wanting to do what is right and yet continuing to do what is wrong, then we found that the answer to the struggle was to be sanctified or made pure by daily crucifying the old self through daily study of the Word. In Romans 8 we find a continuation of that thought. Paul opens chapter 8 with the glorious declaration that thanks be to God, THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION FOR THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST! Because through Christ we have been given the Spirit of Life! The Holy Spirit has been given to us, to guide us, teach us, comfort us and to put to death the misdeeds of the body; thus ending the struggle with habitual sin. So we must sets our minds on what the Spirit desires (back to studying the Word) to live and walk in cooperation with the Spirit. In the winter months, my husband and I have this same conversation almost daily. "Brrr! It's cold!" "Where's your coat?" "Inside." A coat can only keep us warm if we use it. We have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, both are meant to help us, but we have to USE them! 

Romans 8:18-39 God has loved us from the very beginning. We rejected Him, considered Him a liar and ourselves greater than Him and He still loved us. He went to extreme and extraordinary lengths to reconcile our relationship with Him not because He has grown to love us because of something we have done but because He has always loved us in spite of what we have done. He loved us when... And even though we... He gave His Son for us, who died but more than that was raised to LIFE and at this very moment is at the right hand of the Father!! Doing what? Interceding for us!! If you are a believer in Jesus Christ and have been reconciled to God by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior then... CONSIDER, KNOW and BE PERSUADED! Consider that your present sufferings are not worth being compared to the glory that will be revealed in us. Know that God works all things together for the good of the believer and be fully persuaded that nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord! This is our source of JOY! If you are reading this today and you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior consider what He has done for you, so that you can be reconciled to Him. Being lords over our own lives only leads to exhaustion and ultimately eternal separation from God. There is joy, life and victory in choosing Jesus!

Romans 9 - In a time when the world can sometimes seem very scary and when it appears that evil might be winning, can I encourage you with this promise today? The purpose of God will stand!!! In Romans 9, Paul shows us that God is not constrained by man or circumstance. He will use a man who's heart is set on good or a man who's heart is set on evil to accomplish his purpose. We can find great comfort in knowing that no matter what is happening in our world or in our lives. God's purpose WILL stand! Okay, on a side note, can I just continue to encourage you in your personal study time? This morning I struggled to understand portions of this scripture, I felt confused and then when I read some commentators I felt uneasy about their take. But as I prayed I got to experience the teaching of the Holy Spirit as He led me into understanding of the passage, through of all things, diagramming the sentences!!! Mrs. Lott would be so proud! Stick with it my friends you have the greatest of all teachers on hand to help you through!! And man! Does it feel awesome!


In Romans 10 it says"they are zealous for God but their zeal is not based in knowledge." Take a look at yourself, glance to your right and to your left and you will find people zealous for God. Some truly are zealous for God but they are zealous with out real knowledge of who He is , others are searching for a god who suits them and if none can be found, well then, why not fill the position themselves. We have become a world full of teenagers! Thinking we know it all, no one can tell us what to do. We think that the Bible is out of date, that we have progressed to a higher understanding of what right is, of what love is. But regardless of what we think… God is still Lord of all! And the good news? He richly blesses all who call on him. All day long he holds out his hands to us, a disobedient and obstinant people. He holds out Salvation and freedom!!! Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that he has been raised from the dead and you will be saved! Let's be zealous for God but let's do it with the knowledge of who he truly is!! Then you can trust, that in him you will never be put to shame!!

Romans 11 dives into God's heart for the Jews and the nation of Israel. Paul longs for his Jewish brothers to be envious of the relationship he has in Christ and that it would draw some to salvation. I want to do the same, I want to portray God in all truth, not just parts, to the people around me, in the hope that some may be envious and want, for themselves, what I have found in Jesus. If I leave out his love than he appears to be an angry God in the sky but if I focus only on his love, than he comes off as a spineless teddy bear. I must consider both his kindness and his sternness, it is there That we can find a God that is fully trustworthy!

Romans 12 - Watch the news for too long and it would be very easy to be overcome by all the evil in our world. Yesterday's attack in Nice reminds us again how dark and how depraved the human heart can become without the saving grace of Jesus and the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit. I was encouraged this morning as I read the words of Romans 12:17 "do not be overcome by evil, but overcome the evil with good." We have the antidote! 1 John 5:4 says "For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world __ our faith." So what should we do? "Offer our bodies as a living sacrifice holy and pleasing to God, do not conform to the pattern of this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to, use your gifts, let your love be sincere, hate what is evil, cling to what is good, be devoted to one another, honor one another above yourself, never be lacking in zeal when it comes to serving the Lord, be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer, share with God's people who are in need, practice hospitality, bless those who persecute you, rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony with one another, do not be proud, do not be conceited, do not repay evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone, do not take revenge leave it to God, if your enemy is hungry give him something to eat, if he is thirsty drink him something to drink." And hold on!!! Because Jesus is coming soon!!! 


Romans 13 - As I read Romans 13 and as I have sat here now for sometime pondering what I have read it has been very difficult to try and think on these things with out thinking about the recent lives lost in the battle between citizens and authorities. Romans 12 said "do not repay anyone evil for evil... Do not take revenge, but leave room for God's wrath..." On the heels of that Paul continues in Romans 13 "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities..." Why because no authority exists that hasn't been established by God for some purpose. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right. God doesn't always place people is places of authority to bless us but it is always to accomplish His will. There is order in this world and it starts with first submitting to God and second submitting to the authorities He has established. We must love one another, understand that "the night is nearly over" Jesus is coming soon!! Put aside the deeds of darkness, put on the armor of light, behave decently and Clothe ourselves in the character of Jesus Christ! Job 33:4 says "the Spirit of God has made me and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Every single one of us has life because God has given it to us... Now we all need to stop acting like idiots and stop taking what the God has given!!

Romans 15 - Coming from a fairly legalistic background I grew up with a very distinct list of rules to follow. Seeing how it was impossible to ever measure up the secondary step in this process of earning God's love was to point out anyone that appeared to be breaking more of the rules than I was, there by earning myself a better position with God. It has been hard work to allow God to rewrite these ways of thinking that have been so deeply rooted in me. Romans 14 has a lot to say about the one walking in freedom and the one who's faith is being made weak by legalism, getting along. One is told to not look down on the other, and the other instructed not the condemn. Here's the bottom line - there are things, liberties that really don't matter, so stop hitting each other over the head with them. These things should be left between you and the Lord, He is perfectly capable of helping His child work these things out. In the mean time, all of us are called to walk in love. Set your mind on righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, pursue peace and seek ways to build one another up. 

Romans 16: 1 wrapped up my study of Romans today. I had avoided the book of Romans for so long thinking it was too difficult to understand. But now as I look back over all I have learned with the help of the Holy Spirit I am so grateful for the time I spent here. A walk from our separated state to the justification and freedom offered us through Jesus to the helpful instruction to use the scripture in our pursuit of holy living and spreading the gospel. I was inspired by the words of Paul as he reached the end of this letter, "may the God of HOPE fill you will all JOY and PEACE as you trust in HIM, so that you may overflow with Hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. People all around us need hope and we should be overflowing with it!!! Let us put our trust solely in HIM and so that he will fill us with the hope people need!!