Monmouth Church Of Christ Sermons Podcast

Practicing Hospitality

Sun, 27 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Romans 12:9-16

         “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality.” (Romans 12:9-13)
         What is one way we can show sincere love for one another? Romans 12:13 instructs us to share with God's people who are in need and practice hospitality. Love is something that God wants us to show for each other. If we have sincere love for one another we will practice hospitality, and through hospitality we will be able to find out the needs of our brothers and sisters and share in these needs as God leads us.
         What is hospitality? By definition, the word in Greek that is translated as “hospitality” in our English Bibles is the word “phioxenia” “Philo” meaning “love” and “xenos” meaning “strangers,” or a “love for strangers.” This word is found several times in the New Testament both to refer to how we are to treat each other and how we are to treat strangers. Romans 12:13, 16:23, 3 John 1-6, and I Peter 4:8-9 speak about showing hospitality to one another. I Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8 instruct that those who are overseers must be hospitable. However, Hebrews 13:2 speaks about showing hospitality to strangers, as in so doing, some have “entertained angels without knowing it.” So “hospitality” includes not only an openness to each other, but a kindness to visitors, a friendly welcome, or kind and generous treatment offered to guests or strangers that come our way.
         What does hospitality look like? In its simplest form, hospitality can be a welcoming greeting or expression of God's love one for another, or to visitors that enter our midst. This can be difficult to do with someone we don't know: a stranger. However, is not also true that many of us in this room were strangers to each other in one way or another when we first arrived? Maybe we still feel like strangers to some in the congregation because we have not gotten to know them yet. Our tendency is to greet those we are comfortable with, talk to those we are like or have common interests. This is a good thing, but God calls us to something deeper and more intimate. Their are many ways we can be hospitable if we are willing to practice it, and allow God to give us the grace. As we begin to practice hospitality, not only because as Gods word instructs us to do so, but out of true love for others, the body of Christ will become stronger.

         Also, when someone extends hospitality to we need to realize that this may be God intervening in our lives, through this individual. Our yes/no answer is very important. We are talking about responding to God's love for us with a sincere Love for others….a love that is not about me, but about honoring others above myself. In our mind, we may not want to exercise our default responses: “I feel uncomfortable around other people” or “I have other plans.” The point is when God calls us to either give or receive hospitable, we should respond in a way that is consistent with God's mercy. If we can't make it to an invite, we may want to take it on ourselves to make time in the near future to get together. There are many roadblocks to hospitality time /busyness./ not wanting to open up our home. But God asks us, in faith, to love one another, and to love strangers, by showing hospitality.
        Hospitality is a tool we can use to express sincere Love. Hospitality says I'm thinking of you and want to include you in my life and to get to know you better if you'll let me. Showing hospitality is a way we can allow the Love of God to flow through others and at the same time experience the Love of God. Hospitality for needs to be shared and met. Hospitality through the grace of God can turns strangers into brothers and Sisters, in Christ.
       So, it is as important to give hospitality as to receive it. We are new creatures in Christ.(2 Corinthians 5:17-21.) God will give us the Grace and Faith to show hospitality. We all have needs, and as we practice hospitality in response to Gods Word we will be growing in our faith and preparing a place where love is sincere.
                                                                                                       Mark

Belonging To One Another

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Romans 12:3-8

         “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:3-5)
         Consider God's mercy: God's great love for us that through our faith in Christ Jesus makes a way for us to be at peace with him. Moreover, now that we are at peace with him, his Spirit dwells within us to enable us to both love and serve Him and others. Weak as we are in our flesh, the Spirit helps us in our prayer and reassures us that we are His children. How then do we respond?
         Paul says that we respond to God's mercy as “living sacrifices.” That we are no longer living according to the pattern of the world wherein we are seeking to “live for self.” Rather, we live totally devoted to God, consumed with the fire of this Spirit, allowing God to live in us and to work in us according to his will and pleasure.
         One manifestation of God's life in us is our service to one another. The faith that now saves us, now manifests itself in us as we begin to serve each other with the measure of faith God has given us by grace. While each one of us must have faith in order to come into a saved relationship with God through Christ, each of us is given a “measure of faith” with which to serve others, as Paul will say in Romans 12:3-8).
         In this respect, Paul cautions us not to “think more highly of ourselves than we should,” but rather to think of ourselves in line with the measure of faith God has given to us. Paul goes on to say that we need to consider “our role” within the body of Christ. Thinking too highly of ourselves might result in our assuming too much responsibility within the church family. No one person “does it all.” No one person has all the necessary gifts to meet the needs of the family, just like one “body part” does not do all of the work of the body. Every part of the body is dependent on every other part in order for the body to be healthy.  No part of the body can, or should, assume to function apart or separately from the rest of the body.
         Romans 12:5 says “we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” As such, the Lord is telling us that we belong to each other. We belong to each other in the sense that it takes all of us working together to be a healthy body. Each and every member of the body (the church) is valuable and needs to be doing their part in order for the body to be healthy. So, we must exercise whatever abilities we have been given through grace to serve: prophesy, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing, leadership, or showing mercy.   We exercise our gifts by faith, according to the grace given to us. And we exercise these gifts for the benefit of the members of our body to which we belong.
         The Lord's message to us through Romans runs counter to our culture which tends to emphasize self-sufficiency and independence, or even the opposite: reliance on others and unhealthy dependencies. In other words, the pattern of the world teaches us in terms of power and control to achieve as much as we can to the exclusion of others, or alternatively to depend on others to do all of the work and get as much as we can from other people.
         The message to the church is much different. We belong to each other, each of us has a valuable part to play, and by grace, as we exercise our gifts in faith, the body is built up in Christ and is healthy. It was never the intent for just a few people in the church to do all of the work. While the elders, deacons, and ministers have a role to play in the church, it is not God's design for them to do all of the work of the church. Paul makes his address very clear in Romans 12:3 “I say to every one of you….” He is speaking to each person in the church. Each one has a function in the body of Christ, given by grace.
         What function in the body (the church) has God given to you, by grace? How is he asking you to think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith he has given you?

Charles

Responding To God's Grace

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Romans 12:1-2

          “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-which is your spiritual worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12;1-2)
          How do we respond to God's mercy and grace? Having been counted as right before God through our faith in Jesus Christ, having come to a place of peace with God through grace, having been given the Holy Spirit, and having been the recipients of God's wonderful mercy, how then should we respond? In Romans 12:1-2, Paul begins to talk about the way in which we respond. He urges us (not suggests, but urges us!) to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. As Paul says, this our spiritual worship (or service) to God
          If we are to respond by presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, what does that mean? What does it mean to respond to God's mercy and God's grace, by being a living sacrifice? The concept of sacrifice grows out of Paul's Jewish understanding and experience. In the Old Testament, God was to be presented with sacrifices that were pure, holy, unblemished and the best of what could be offered.   For example the grain offerings were to be made with fine flour (Lev 2:1), the animal sacrifices for fellowship offerings were to be made of animals without blemish or defect (Lev 3:1), sin offerings were to be made with a young bull without defect (Lev 4:1), and similarly, all sacrifices of other kinds and variations were to be made with animals that were without defect (again see for example Leviticus 4).
          However, when speaking human beings offering themselves as sacrifices before the Lord, the Psalmist would say that that the kind of sacrifice that was pleasing to the Lord was a broken spirit, and a broken and contrite heart (Psalm 51:17). Furthermore to simply sacrifice to the Lord was not what the Lord was looking for. Rather it was obedience. Samuel told Saul that God preferred obedience over burnt offerings and sacrifices (I Samuel 15:22). The Psalmist also affirms that “To obey is better than sacrifice (Psalm 40:6). Jesus affirms what the prophets say about the preference of mercy over sacrifice, “I desire mercy not sacrifice!” (Hosea 6:6, Amos 5:22, Micah 6;6, Matthew 9:13).
         So how do we integrate what is said in the Old Testament into what Paul is telling here about responding to God's mercy and grace through offering our bodies as living sacrifices? First of all, if we think in terms of Old Testament terminology, we should think about ourselves as a holy offering to God, pure and blameless, one for whom Christ died.    Just as the sacrifice was laid on the altar and then consumed with the fire, so should we think about offering ourselves to God consumed with the fire of the Spirit. In other words, as we offer ourselves to God, we should do so recognizing that we are being purified by the Spirit and as such are consumed with God's Spirit to use us completely and totally as He wills. We should be willing to give our very best to God, and be willing to allow God to literally consume us with his love and grace so that we can be fragrant offerings to Him as we, in turn, love others.
         But also, in keeping with what the Psalms says about sacrifice, we should keep in mind that God wants us to come to him with a contrite and broken spirit. This means that we come completely humble, teachable and lead-able by God, not seeking to “do things for God,” our own way, but rather being moldable to God's presence and God's Spirit to be used according to his will and plan. Our praise and our worship should thus take place out of a sense that we are people who have been broken, but now brought to peace with God through his grace. We do not come to him in pride, but rather in humility.
         Finally, we respond continually. Our lives are forever before God on the altar. We should live with the awareness that God is continually empowering us with grace and enabling us to be useful for his purposes through the Spirit. Even if we are not fully aware of how God is using us, God is still at work in us, through the flame of the Spirit.

Charles

Faith Comes By Hearing

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Romans 10-11

          “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:14-17)
          In the tenth chapter of Romans, Paul speaks about why his fellow Israelites have not yet attained the righteousness that comes by faith. To be sure, they were zealous for God. However, their zeal was not based on knowledge. They sought to establish a righteousness of their own, rather than submit to the righteousness that comes by faith. The righteousness they sought to established was based on adherence to the law, accomplished through self-effort. They fell into the trap of trying to be right before God based on their own effort to keep the law, rather than trusting God through faith, even in their obedience.   Paul quotes Leviticus 18:5 in describing a righteousness that is by the law, “The man who does these things will live by them.” In other words, a person trying to be justified by law does not trust God, but tries to attain a right standing before God by doing what the law says, not by faith, but by works.
         Paul then contrasts the righteousness that comes by faith: it comes through faith in Jesus Christ. Paul says, “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.” (Romans 10:9-10). Our zeal for God then is not based on works, but on trusting that God will do the work of salvation through Christ. While our faith leads to works and obedience, it is not works and obedience without faith that can save us. The Israelites were trying to be right with God based on the act of keeping the law, not through trusting God.
         However, Paul does not stop there, he goes on to address the question of how we arrive at this saving faith. If we are saved by faith, how does this faith come? He answers the question: faith comes by hearing the message of Christ. He will say “Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17). We come to faith when we heard Christ preached. Faith is not inherited, nor does it come from works, or simply “being a good person.” Faith comes by hearing the preaching of the message of Christ: Christ's teaching, his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Faith comes by hearing what the gospel means: that it is the power of God to make us right with God, and the power of God to save us.
         Thus, in order to bring people to Christ, we must preach the message of Christ and the teachings of Christ. To proclaim other things, however helpful they might be, cannot lead to saving faith. Why? Because saving faith comes by hearing the message of Christ. In the remainder of Romans 10, Paul goes onto demonstrate how Christ was preached through the prophets and the Psalms so that people could believe. However in Romans 11, Paul asserts that the people would not listen to the message as preached, but rather killed the prophets. Thankfully, there was a remnant chosen by grace. This chosen remnant thus proves that God saves by grace not by works. Because if salvation were by works, then grace would no longer be grace (Romans 11:5-6).
         The question is this: when the message of Christ is preached, does one choose to believe, or persist in unbelief as did Israel (see Romans 11:22-23). Even knowing about Christ, and having heard that salvation comes through faith in Christ Jesus, do we still persist (like Israel) in trying to develop a righteousness of our own? Are we still attempting to construct a means of 'feeling right with God' that is based on our works without faith? Are we relying solely on the work of God in Christ to save us, or have we made substitutions with other things? May our zeal be based on the knowledge and preaching of the message of Christ-and Christ alone!

Charles

Depending On God's Mercy

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 04:00:00 GMT

Romans 9

         “What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.' It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.” (Romans 9:14-16)
         From the very start of the book of Romans, Paul has emphasized that it is by faith that we are saved. In the gospel, a righteousness of God is revealed, and it is a righteousness that is by faith, from first to last (Romans 1:17). Paul continues on in Romans 3:22-24 to say that the righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. 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. Paul continues in Romans 4 to discuss what this kind of faith looks like by pointing to Abraham. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Abraham trusted that what God said was true, and was therefore counted as right before God. The promise to Abraham came by faith, not through law, so that it could be guaranteed by grace, and guaranteed to all who had the faith of Abraham. In other words, Abraham was the father of all of those who would be counted as right before God based on their faith (Romans 4:13-17). Those who are heirs to the promise of God are those who are of the faith of Abraham, not those who live by the law (as if keeping the law is the way to be right before God). Paul says that “If those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless.” (Romans 4:14).
         In Romans 9, Paul picks up this theme in a lament over his brothers, those of his own race, the people of Israel. While they are the ones who have the “adoption as sons; the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship, the promises, the patriarchs, and the human ancestry of Christ” (Romans 9:3-5), Paul ultimately concludes that they did not pursue righteousness by faith, but pursued it as if it were by works (Romans 9:30-33). They missed the key: trust. As Paul quotes from Isaiah, “The one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” (Romans 9:33, Isaiah 8:14)
          Paul goes to great length in Romans 9 to show how neither law nor lineage brings us into a right relationship to God. The true Israel are those who trust God, not those who rely upon their ancestry or their ability to keep the law. The children of God, are the children of the promise that was by faith (the descendents of Isaac through Jacob). As such, our salvation depends not on our effort, but squarely upon God's mercy, as Paul emphasizes in Romans 9:16. We can argue with God all we want through our own sense of fairness, and how we think things “should be.” But in the end, we are only left with our salvation being an act of God's mercy. Something that we cannot earn through our own effort, and something that we cannot acquire by being “born into it.”
          Romans 9:20-24 speaks of God's right to make us into whatever he likes for his purposes. Using the potter and the potter's clay as an example, he contends that God (as potter) has the right to make out of the same lump of clay whatever he wants: some things for noble use and some things for common use. We are the clay, and who are we, as the clay, to talk back to the potter, the one who made us? (Jeremiah 18:1-12, Isaiah 29:16)
          Part of our praise and thankfulness to God, is thus generated out of a growing awareness that we are the “objects of God's mercy.” That as Paul says, we have been “prepared in advance” for glory. From both among Jews and Gentiles, God has had mercy on us, and by our faith in Jesus Christ, we have been brought into being “the people of God.” In our alienation from God, we were “not his people.” But now in Christ, we have been brought to being called “sons of the living God.” (Romans 9:25-26, Hosea 1:10 and 2:23) We are those, who are being formed and shaped to reflect the glory of God!
         All of this is a result of God's mercy. As Paul makes very clear: it does not depend on our desire, or our effort, but on God's mercy. In our faith, let us rely on God's mercy and know that we are who we are, and what we are, by the mercy and grace of God.

Charles

Co-Heirs With Christ

Sun, 09 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Romans 8:15-17

         “Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:17).
         And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession-to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:13-14)
        To be someone's heir is to have the right to inherit the property, title, or rights upon the death of someone.   To be an inheritor, or one who inherits, means that one is guaranteed to receive something in the future (at least, it should be that way, if all legalities are taken care of).
         When we think about who we are in Christ, Paul tells us in Romans that we are heirs, and more than that, co-heirs with Christ. As children of God, we have an inheritance from God that will be ours one day. But more than that, we are to inherit alongside Christ. I Peter 1:3-9 tells us that our inheritance can never spoil, perish, or fade and that it is kept in heaven for us through our faith until the time that it is to be revealed to us. Ephesians 1:13-14 tells us that this inheritance is guaranteed by the Holy spirit until our redemption is completed. All of this is to the praise of God's glory.
         So, when we think about what it means “to be saved,” we gain a deep understanding from the book of Romans. First, we learn that we are counted right with God on the basis of our faith. Our salvation is a “gift” from God, not something that we earn. But once brought into a right relationship with God, we have peace with God. We are no longer striving to try to be right with God by our own human effort. Rather, by grace through faith, we can now live in peace with God. Moreover, we receive the Holy Spirit who helps us in our human weaknesses. The Spirit helps us to put to death the misdeeds of the body. The Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. The Spirit intercedes for us to articulate our thoughts that we cannot express. And the Spirit prays in us according to God's will (Romans 8:26-27).
         But also, as people who are redeemed, and justified, we have an inheritance. The Spirit guarantees this inheritance. No one can take it away from us. This means that we have something glorious to look forward to as heirs. The Spirit within us points us towards this hope and works within us to build our character so that even in our sufferings we are not focused on this world, but on the hope of inheriting that surely will be ours (Romans 15:13).
         When Christ was raised from the dead, he, as our “elder brother” (in the family relational sense, see Hebrews 2:11) was the first to inherit what God had prepared for him. God raised him to life and seated him with God at his right hand in the heavenly realms. God put everything under Christ's feet (Ephesians 1:20-22). But now, in Christ, since we are also children of God and of the same family, we, too, inherit. Romans tells us that we are co-heirs with Christ. So, just as Christ was raised by the power of the Spirit, so too, by faith, we have been raised to live a new life. While it is true that we are still in these bodies, we gain a taste of our inheritance now through the Holy Spirit, who has given life to these mortal bodies (Romans 8:11).   Ephesians tell us that even now, we have been raised with Christ and seated with him in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:4-6). God so loved us, that in Christ, all things are ours (Romans 8:32).
         So, as we think about our lives now, we need to keep the perspective that we are co-heirs with Christ. A time is coming when that inheritance will be fully ours. That is why Paul can say that the suffering that we have to undergo now cannot even be compared to the glory that is to be revealed in us. Nothing we experience in this life can really measure up to the weight of the inheritance that we are guaranteed to receive now.
         May we allow the fact that we are to inherit salvation in its fullest sense, inform the way in which we live our lives. This world is not our home, we are just passing through.

Charles

More Than Conquerors In Christ

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Romans 8:18-39

         “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose….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.” (Romans 8:28, 38-39)
         From the very start of the book of Romans, Paul has made the point that we are made right with God by faith. To be made right with God, or to be justified, is something which God credits to us on the basis of our faith. Like Abraham, our faith is a matter of putting our trust in God and believing that God has the power to do what he has promised. For us, the faith whereby we are counted as righteous before God is our trust that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (to make us right), Romans 4:24-25. Through our faith, then, God has justified us.
         Having been made right with God, we are now indwelled by the Spirit. The Spirit gives life to our mortal bodies (Romans 8:11), testifies that we are children of God (Romans 8:16), enables us to put to death the misdeeds of the body (Romans 8:13), and intercedes for us according to the will of God (Romans 8:26-27). As children of God, the Spirit helps us in our weakness and inspires within us the hope of what is to come: the full reality of being adopted as children of God and the receipt of our glorious inheritance (Romans 8:17, 22-24, and Romans 15:13).
         Given who we are in Christ, Paul reflects on the sufferings that we must go through in this life. Paul has said in Romans 8:17, that because we are God's children, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. In Romans 8:18, he says that “our present sufferings are not worth comparing to the glory that will be revealed in us.” In other words, not only now, but in the future, what God is able to do within us is far greater than anything we will have to suffer in the body. He goes on to say that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, and who have been called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). So no matter, what we may be going through, as difficult as it may seem, and as much suffering as we may experience, Paul concludes that what God has in store for us is far greater. So much so that we can't even talk about our present suffering and our future glory in the same terms. The two are “incomparable.”
         Paul continues to emphasize the point by saying that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” If God did not spare his own Son for us, will not God graciously give us all things? Since God is the one who has justified you, and made you right with him through your faith, what could possibly come against you? Moreover, Christ has been raised, is seated at the right hand of God, and is interceding for us-right now! (Romans 8:33-34). Absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of Christ-not trouble, hardship, persecution, famine or nakedness, or danger!
         We are more than conquerors in Christ! It is through God's great love for us that we have been brought to a place of absolute inseparability from God. As Paul says in Romans 8:37-39, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. In Christ, all has been conquered! Nothing we experience in this life, no matter how difficult it is, has the power to separate us from God's love.   Christians may often express “concern” over what Satan and his demons may try to do to discourage and tear apart the lives of the faithful. But Paul reminds us that “neither angels nor demons” have the power to separate us from God's love. God is at work in every situation for our ultimate good, and for his purposes.
         So what should our perspective be as we go through the struggles and pains of this life? Because God is the one who justifies, we can be assured that nothing will separate us from his love. He is at work in all situations for our good and for his purposes (even though we may not see it at the time). We can be assured of his love and of his care against all odds, and against all difficult circumstances. Whatever we may suffer cannot even be compared to the glory that is to be revealed. Praise God for his great love for us in Christ.

Charles

Life In The Spirit

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Romans 8:5 - 17

         “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father.' The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:15-17)
         In Christ, we have come to a new way of being and therefore a new way of living. Life in the Spirit is different than life under the “written code.” Life under the written code brought a knowledge of sin and the experience of guilt and frustration for not measuring up. But the gift of God in Christ, brings life! And what a wonderful new life it is. The requirements of righteousness that the law exacted from us have been fully met in Christ. The result? There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit of life has set us free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-4).
         What does this life look like? First Paul tells us that even though our physical bodies are dead because of sin (and its desire), our spirits are alive because of righteousness. The Spirit that lives in us is the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, and so we have new life in us! Paul says, “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.” (Romans 8:11). In Christ, we no longer have to live under the threat of condemnation.
         Secondly, Paul tells us that we received a Spirit of “son-ship.” In other words, the Holy Spirit in us testifies to the change that has taken place in us. We are truly children of God now. The Spirit in us testifies to this reality because we cry from within ourselves “Abba, Father.” Recognizing in the deepest place of our heart that God is our Father is a work of the Holy Spirit to testify to our spirit that truly belong to God. Moreover, we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ! As children of God, we have an inheritance, and not only so, but we share in the inheritance of Christ.
         Yet, Paul would also go on to say that the test of whether or not we truly belong to Christ is whether or not we have the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9) and whether we “share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17) New life in Christ will entail putting to death the misdeeds of the body by the power of the Spirit of God (Romans 8:13-14). If the Spirit lives in us, then we will be led by the Spirit. The Spirit does not lead us to continue in the sinful deeds of the body, but to offer our body to do what is right and good, and in accordance with the will of God. But more importantly, the power of the Spirit enables us to overcome the flesh. How so? God provides the resurrection power to accomplish the task by the Spirit. But our part is setting our mind to what the Spirit wants, and yielding our will to what the Spirit works in us (Romans 8:8-10). If our mind is still set on the flesh, we will be disabled from following the promptings and leadings of the Holy Spirit. Paul says that we cannot obey God if our mind is set on fulfilling the desires of the flesh.
         The yielding of ourselves to the work of the Spirit in putting to death the deeds of the body will result in suffering in this life. It is a suffering to put away the flesh and to resist its desires. Yet, when we let the Spirit lead us and allow the Spirit's power to overcome our fleshly desires that lead to death, we begin to understand what true life is. Just as Christ had to suffer in the physical body on the cross for sin, so must we share in that suffering. But just as Christ was raised to the glory of the father, so are we raised in this life by the Spirit to walk in a new kind of life, and so will we be raised for all eternity to share in the glorious inheritance of Christ!
         So, new life in Christ is lived by the Spirit. Righteousness has been granted to us on the basis of our faith, and now we are to live by the Spirit that has raised us to a victorious life, the promise of a glorious inheritance. And by the Spirit, we experience both the suffering of Christ, as well as the glory of Christ. Praise God for life in the Spirit, and the help that we have to live this life to the praise of God's glory.

Charles

The Law Of The Spirit Of Life

Sun, 17 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Romans 7:7 - 8:4

         “Therefore, there is 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. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4)”
         In Romans 1-6, Paul has gone to great lengths to demonstrate that we are counted as right before God on the basis of our faith. Our salvation is the gift of God, not something that we work for or earn by our own merit. All have sinned, and fall short of God's glory, and therefore all are in need of salvation. As Paul illustrates, salvation cannot be earned but must be received as the gracious gift of God's grace and God's love. In putting our trust in God that Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is sufficient to cleans us from sin, we are counted as being right with God. We are justified. As Romans 5:1-5 tells us, we are now at peace with God.
         With such good news at hand, Paul is concerned that some might misinterpret salvation by grace and see it as a license to keep on sinning so that grace may increase (Romans 6:1-4 and Romans 6:15-18). Paul says, “By no means!” We have died to sin and we can no longer offer our bodies as instruments of wickedness, but must rather offer our bodies to righteousness. As Paul encourages us recognize that sin gets us nowhere. Sin extracts costly wages from us: our very life! Yet, the gift of God leads to holiness and brings eternal life (Romans 6:23).
         Yet, Paul also takes time to reflect on the reality that while we are no longer to remain in sin, we still have a battle going on inside us. Paul would voice this frustration we all feel when he says “I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
(Romans 7:21-25)
         Paul then will rejoice that in Christ there is no condemnation. The law of the Spirit of life in us sets us free from the law of sin at work in our bodies. Paul reflects on how we become conscious of sin through the law. For indeed, we would not know what sin was were it not for the law that points it out to us (Romans 7:7). So, through the law we become aware of sin, and aware of our need for God's mercy and grace. The good news of Jesus Christ is that the Spirit within us now enables us to overcome the sin that wars within us. What it takes to be right before God is now met in us through Jesus Christ. The payment for sin was made by Jesus, and now the his life in us enables us to live according to God's will. Paul would say in Galatians that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20)
         Praise God for the Spirit in us that gives us life. As long as we are in these bodies, we are going to be subject to the “power” of sin attempting to work in us. But thankfully, now, in Christ, we have his power through the Spirit to put to death those actions that sin would try to work within us. We are now to yield to the work of the Spirit in us that gives us life! And we yield to the work of the Spirit when as Paul tells us we “set our mind” on what the Spirit desires. As the Spirit works in us to prompt us to do God's will, we must agree and yield by setting our mind to what God's Spirit wants for us. In so doing, sin is defeated!
         As Paul has gone to great lengths to explain, we are no longer slaves to sin. We no longer have to do what the sinful nature wants. Moreover, we have the power of the risen Christ at work in our lives to overcome sin. Let us take captive our thoughts and consider where our “mind is set.” The result of a life lived by the Spirit and not by the flesh is life and peace. Let us praise God that Christ has rescued us from the law of sin and death.

Charles

External Life: God's Free Gift

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Romans 6:15-23

         “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
         Paul emphasizes throughout his letter to the Roman church that salvation is a gift from God. It is a gift for which we do not “work,” but one that is given freely by God's grace to all who believe that Jesus died for our sins and was raised to life for our justification (see Romans 4:5-8 and 4:24-25). Further, Paul contrasts the difference between the effects of sin that entered through the one man Adam, and the effect of salvation that comes through the sacrifice of the one man, Jesus Christ. As Paul says in Romans 5:16 “Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.”
         And now here again, in Paul's discussion of new life in Christ, he emphasizes that the effect of sin is different than the effect of righteousness. Sin extracts “wages” from us. Sin makes us pay, and the payment is corruption, destruction, and death. Whereas the receipt of the gift of God's righteousness is eternal life. Whereas sin seeks to enslave us, and make us pay for that enslavement with our lives, the gift of God enables us to live in a way that brings life and joy in a right relationship with God. Paul encourages the Roman church not to fall back into the slavery of sin in their former way of life, but to continue in obedience to the teaching in righteousness they had received.
          Paul recognizes that the human “flesh” is weak, and there is continual temptation to give in to the flesh and once again be enslaved to sin through offering our bodies as instruments to impurity and ever-increasing wickedness. So, to spur the Roman church on to continued obedience, he asks the question “What benefit did you reap from those actions of which you are now ashamed?” (Romans 6:21). In other words, Paul is asking them to think about the practical outcome in their lives of participating in sin. What benefit does one gain from giving one's body to sin? Paul argues that if we look at the outcome of sin in our lives, we will see that it does not deliver on what it promises. It exacts a high price on our lives, and eventually leads to spiritual death, and in many instances, physical death.
         If we reflect on Romans 1:24-32, we can easily see that sin does not pay off, but rather results in a ruined life. Sexual immorality and promiscuity in our day and age has proven over and over again that it leads to physical death, spiritual death, broken relationships, and is nothing but trouble. Think about the increase of AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases, divorce, and broken families, all resulting from human beings choosing to participate in sin. What benefit did they reap? There was no benefit, there was only a high price to be paid, a broken life, and broken relationships. What benefit is there in spending one's life in one form of addiction or another, whether it be pornography, alcohol, drugs, work, or one's substance of choice? Is it not wasted time, disappointment in life, broken relationships, and self-loathing? What benefit is there in giving one's self to greed, envy, and becoming obsessed with success? Is it not more stress, a life that is never satisfied, and again, broken relationships? What benefit is there to giving in to one's pride and arrogance, looking down on others and not being willing to reconcile? Is it not the misery of being alone, friendless, and never being able to truly connect in a meaningful way with another human being? What benefit is there in dishonoring mother and father and never paying attention to their needs? Is it not, once again, broken relationships, which then lead to loneliness and more misery? Sin exacts too high a price. It enslaves, and then it demands payment-our very life!
         Praise be to God that through Jesus Christ, God has freed us from the enslavement to sin, and given us eternal life! As we give our bodies as instruments of righteousness, the result is not death, but eternal life. There is great benefit, both now and in the future for life given to God in Christ.   A life given to God in Christ avoids the deeply scarring effects of sin, and instead produces a harvest of righteousness in this life and in the life to come. Praise God for his free gift of life in Christ.

Charles