Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 8-10.

Paul finishes his exposition on salvation by grace through faith in today’s before moving on to some of the implications it has for us.  First, Paul tells us that if we have the Spirit of God living in us we will live according to the spirit (or possibly the Spirit) not according to the flesh.  So, we need to set our minds on what the Spirit desires and turn our minds from what the flesh desires.  Paul also tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ we do not belong to Christ.  One could easily misinterpret what Paul is writing here to think that since we need to live according to the spirit rather than the flesh that the physical world is irredeemably evil.  But Paul recognizes that and points out that God raised Christ from the dead as an example that He will give life to our mortal bodies.  That is, just as Christ’s physical body was raised from the dead, so too our bodies will be raised from the dead (should we die before the day of transformation arrives).

From there Paul goes on to point out that as we live in these untransformed bodies we suffer in various ways, perhaps just the pain of our bodies getting older, but perhaps pain and suffering inflicted on us because we profess faith in Christ.  However, we have the hope of God transforming our bodies, just as He did Jesus’ body.  In the meantime, God’s Spirit will help us in our weakness.  While we do not all for which we should pray, the Spirit does and it will intercede for us according to the will of God.  Further Paul tells us that God works in all things for the good of those who love Him.  Knowing this, why should we fear anything?  If God is defending us, is working for our good, who can bring harm to us?  Perhaps you fear being separated from God, but Jesus said that no one can snatch us out of His hand and here Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from Him.  In fact, one of my favorite declarations of faith is here:

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 able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I too share that conviction.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 4-7.

Paul continues on his exposition about salvation by grace through faith in today’s passage.  He points out that Abraham was credited as righteous because he believed God.  This righteousness was credited to Abraham before he was circumcised, and before Isaac was born.  It came even before Abraham fathered Ishmael.  Abraham did not earn his righteousness by his actions, rather God gave it to him as a free gift.  In the same way God will credit those who believe in Jesus with righteousness.  After further exposition on God’s grace in giving us righteousness, Paul then explains the situation we were in before we received God’s gift: we had sinned and were therefore slaves to sin.  However, when we believed in Christ we died with Him to sin, freeing us from that slavery.  It is God’s grace which allows us to stop sinning.  Doing good does not make us righteous, rather, the fact that God has made us righteous causes us to do good.  Some people think that because God’s grace has made us righteous, because our goodness has no impact on God’s love for us, that we have no reason not to sin.  They fail to understand that God’s gift of righteousness is the only reason we need to not sin.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 1-3.

On Sunday I wrote about how Paul had those to whom he considered himself accountable.  In today’s passage we see another example of Paul not considering himself above others.  Here he writes that he wants to visit the Roman Believers in order to impart some spiritual gift which will build them up.  Then he immediately clarifies that he wants them (he and the Roman Believers) to be mutually encouraged in their faith.  We should take this lesson to heart.  If Paul felt that he was not “above” the Believers in Rome with regards to faith in Christ and following Christ, who today can consider themselves above other Believers, and who may we consider as being above ourselves?  We all have something to teach our fellow Believers, and we all have something to learn from them.

Paul finishes his introduction to this letter by saying that the righteous live by faith.  He then explains in depth what that means.  Paul begins by pointing out that all people of all time have no excuse for not acknowledging God and following His laws because God has made both Himself and His laws clear in the nature of Creation.  Nevertheless most people have foolishly chosen to attempt to appear wise by denying that God and His rules for human behavior exist.  Rejecting the truth about God results in us instead embracing lies that our lust, greed, and other wickedness are good and beneficial.  Paul points out that even those of us who have embraced the knowledge of God and sought to obey His laws have failed to truly live according to them.  We have nothing to hold over those others which would allow us to claim ourselves superior to them.    Paul points out that our only hope of righteousness is to put our faith in Christ.  We will not, cannot, be righteous by our own efforts.  However, if we trust God, if we have faith in Jesus Christ, God will transform us so that we can indeed follow His commands.  This means that we do not do good because we think it will benefit us to do good, but because we are inspired by the example Christ gave us, and by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, to emulate that righteousness which Christ exhibited.  Whatever righteous behavior we have belongs not to us, is not reflective of our goodness, but rather reflects the gift which God has given to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 15-16.

Paul continues, and wraps up, his admonition to accept those Believers who have different views on how to faithfully follow Christ.  He tells us that we should accept others as Christ accepted us.  If we look at the context of the rest of Paul’s letter to the Romans we see that he did not mean that we should not accept those who openly sin as fellow Believers.  Instead, Paul tells us to take the attitude of Christ who one more than one occasion said something which can be paraphrased as, “Your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more.” Let us strive to sin no more and encourage our fellow Believers to do the same.

Paul completes his message to the Believers in Rome by returning to a theme he mentioned at the beginning.  That theme is one of humility in that he expresses the confidence that they already knew what he had told them in this missive.  He emphasizes that what he wrote was merely a reminder of things they already knew.  I believe that if you had asked Paul he would have said that he wrote about these things because there were those who were taking some aspects of Christ’s teachings and twisting them to dismiss other aspects of His teaching.  Paul wrote to correct those distortions, but he emphasized here that he was not better than those to whom he wrote and that they should study both his writing and the Scriptures to come to their own conclusions about how to follow God.  We should not hold the teachings of one person, or even a small group of people, as authoritative, nor should we hold our own understanding as authoritative.  We should study Scripture for ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us AND we should listen to what other Believers have concluded from their study of Scripture and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 11-14.

In today’s passage, Paul destroys the primary argument used by those who claim to follow Christ to hate Jews.  First, Paul starts by pointing out that God used the rejection of Christ by Jews to open the door for Gentiles to come to Him.  However, Paul points out that if God cut off those Jews who rejected Christ, He can also cut off those Gentiles who fail to remain faithful.  God desires to bring the Jewish people fully back into a relationship with Him.  There is more to what Paul writes on this than I can put into my own words.  Every year I read this passage and try to make the point I see in it and every year it feels like I fail to clearly state it.

That being said, I want to put my main focus on chapter 12 (and perhaps some of what comes after in today’s passage).  Actually as I try to compose my thoughts I realize that in this passage Paul’s wording makes his meaning crystal clear.  There is no real need to  spend much time rewording it to make it more clear.  First, we should offer our bodies up to God as a sacrifice.  If doing His will means pain, suffering, or even death, we should embrace that as an opportunity to return to Him a little bit of what He has given us.  That should lead us to allow the Holy Spirit to transform our minds and thoughts into those which imitate God and refuse to allow the world to mold us into its image.  Part of that transformation means looking for ways to bless those who persecute us, those who desire to see our faith broken.  Another part of that means not viewing ourselves us superior to others.  Let us not look down on others and be willing to do “menial labor”.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 8-10.

Paul expands on his theme about serving righteousness rather than sin in today’s passage.  He tells us that if we live according to our physical desires, we will remain in sin and be dead to the Spirit.  But, if we live according to the desires of God’s Spirit, we will die to our physical desires and experience true life.  Further, as we teach ourselves to live by the Spirit, we will lose all fear because we will feel God within us.  Paul even addresses those of us who struggle knowing what we should pray.  He tells us that as we work to do what is righteous, the Spirit Himself will intercede for us.  Paul points out that any suffering we experience for doing God’s will binds us closer to Christ and reminds us that He died for us.  If God has given His own Son to die for us, how much more will He give us going forward?  As I think about what Paul writes I realize that there is nothing to fear.  Any suffering which I may experience in serving Christ will be temporary, but the joy which will follow will last forever. So, I will seek to embrace suffering just as Paul did.  Remember how God sent prophets to warn Paul what would happen when he returned to Jerusalem that final time?  Yet Paul still went to Jerusalem.  He did so because he embraced suffering in order to server Christ.  There is joy from following Paul’s example.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 4-7.

I am not exactly sure what I want to write about today’s passage, but something Paul wrote in chapter 7 resonates with me: “For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”  This resonates with me because I often find myself in exactly that situation. He goes on to say that if he does what he does not want to do, it is not he who does it.  Instead it is the sin living within him which is doing it.  Yet, earlier in the passage Paul wrote that the sin which lived within us was put to death when we were baptized into Christ. Which leads me to understand where I want to go with today’s blog.

Paul tells us that we have a choice to make.  We can serve either sin, or righteousness, but we will serve one or the other.  If we do not male ourselves slaves to righteousness, sin will make itself our master.  This means that when we find ourselves struggling with sin we should seek out acts of righteousness with which to fill our time.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Romans 1-3.

Paul begins his letter to the Believers in Rome by summarizing his ministry, which he summarizes as being to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.  He goes on to write of his long held desire to visit and preach in Rome, something he is convinced will finally happen in the near future.  He goes on to express his desire to bring some spiritual gift to the Roman Believers, then realizes this sounds as if he thinks of himself as better than they in some way.  Paul makes it clear that while he thinks that other Believers are enriched by what he can teach them he also believes that he is enriched, and learns more about truly following Jesus, by his interactions with other Believers.  I understand the dilemma  Paul had here.  Paul felt he had to make the case for what he had to offer other Believers, but struggled with coming off as if he felt the benefit all flowed from him to them, when in fact he felt that he gained better insight into his faith by explaining it to others, and by the responses they had to his teaching.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 14-16

So, I did not touch on chapter 14 yesterday, but I really think what Paul said there is important to what he says in the passage for today.  Which means that I am including chapter 14 today.  In chapter 14 Paul refers to those who believe that one must not eat certain foods, and/or that one must hold special services on particular days.  He contrasts them to those who believe that it makes no difference what one eats, or when one holds services.  Paul tells us that either approach is acceptable to God.  Those who think it is a sin to eat certain foods should not do so, and those who think it is not should not press them to eat such foods.  Neither side should condemn the other.  Both sides should give thanks to God for what they eat and praise Him for providing them food to eat.  Instead of condemning others and trying to convince them to live as we interpret Scripture, we should live so as to help them do what is right.  Which is kind of a contradiction because helping them do what is right means convincing them to do that which is right. The key here has to do with condemnation.  If we believe that what someone is doing is a sin, rather than attempt to convince them of the sinfulness of doing it, we should attempt to convince them of the greater joy to be had by not doing it.  Our efforts should be to nurture people’s faith rather than make them feel inadequate.  Rather than argue over what is right and wrong, we should seek to live in harmony.  We will revisit this subject in a little bit as we read some of Paul’s other letters.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Romans 11-14

The beginning of today’s passage contains a great explanation of why Christians who hate Jews are not true Believers.  Paul’s basic point is that the Jews are still God’s Chosen people.  God has used the rejection by many of the Jews to call Gentiles to Himself, but in due time He will reclaim the Jewish people as His own.  I think a careful examination of what Paul writes here reveals a lot about God’s plan for Jew and Gentile alike.  He cut those Jews who rejected His salvation through Christ off from Him in order to make room for Gentiles.  Yet, if they turn once more to Him, He will make room for them.  Ultimately, it seems to me that Paul is saying that we need to be careful not to make the same mistake towards the Jews which some of them made towards the Gentiles: the mistake of thinking that they (or we) were better than others on account of God’s mercy towards them (or us).  God wished to use the Jews to show His love to all people, but they (but not all of them) chose to attempt to hoard God’s love for themselves.  They chose to look at others as rejected by God.  Let us not make the same mistake.  The mistake of thinking that God does not still love His prodigal sons and daughters.

In order to avoid that mistake, we must allow God’s Spirit to transform us into a new person by changing the way we think.  We need to avoid letting ourselves copy the thoughts and behaviors of our society.  Part of that transformations is to not think of ourselves as more than we are.  I am no better than anyone else, and they are no better than I.  As Believers, each of us are part of the Body of Christ.  Each of us has been given different gifts by God in order to fulfill His purpose.  Whatever gift God has given us, let us use to the fullest of our ability.  One gift that we each have is the ability to love others.  So let us truly love others, even those who persecute us. Let us pray for them and ask God to bless them.  When people do wrong to us, we should not attempt to repay them in kind.  Instead, we should remember that Jesus’ rule was, “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you.”  Not, “Do unto others as they have done to you.”

There are two more things in this passage I would like to cover, but I think I am only going to get to one of them.  Paul tells us that we should submit to the governing authorities.  Those who have positions of authority have been placed there by God, even those who may have broken laws to get there.  So, we should accept their authority.  Of course, we must temper that submission to those authorities with what Peter and the other Apostles told the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.”  So, while we should obey the governing authorities, we must remember the limits to their authority.  And Paul gives us guidance in determining how to identify those limits.  Let us act with true love towards everyone, any command from the governing authorities which would lead us to act outside of love for others is outside of the bonds to which we are bound to submit.