Romans 12-16: Application Process

So now that we’ve gotten all of that out of the way…

             

            -faith ALONE in Christ ALONE = Justification
            -how to deal with the zombie sin nature
            -what’s going on with Israel, and who is God in light of that

…we can begin the best part of the whole book – application. How, then, are we supposed to live in light of what we’ve learned from the rest of the book?

Paul actually makes it surprisingly simple, by giving us specific lists of things to do and things to avoid.

(the following outline has been borrowed and tweaked a bit)[1]

(1) At Church (chapter 12)

Recognize your position within the body of Christ. You have a position. You know how I know that? If you’ve accepted Jesus, you’ve been given the Holy Spirit as a gift- and along with that certain spiritual gifts for you to use to build the church up (cf. 1 Corinthians 12) It really only works, though, if we all work together. And we do that through love, through patience, through calling out evil in our midst, through forgiveness. Through doing life together and seeking to honor God in the process.

(2) The government (chapter 13)

The general tendency of the day? Hate the government. The general tendency of people today? ….Hate the government. Not much has changed in 2000 years. So many wars have been fought over this concept of how to govern a group of people. What the Bible says: Pray for our government, because they have been put in their position by God.

(3) Loving On Each Other (chapter 13-15).

Seems kind of simple, really. “All you need is love, ba badada da” (The Beatles). But honestly, it fleshes out in different functions.

Love means: Don’t bicker about small things. It destroys relationships, and really, what are we fighting for? Don’t confuse matters of opinion with issues of sin. They’re different. [2]

Love means: Be good to those around you whose conscience is bothered in different ways than yours. As in, don’t do things around a person if there’s even the chance it will cause them harm in their spiritual walk.

Love means: No racism. Period. The end.

Love means: Bear these things in mind and live like they’re important – they wouldn’t be in the Bible if they weren’t. 

Love means: Follow the example Christ set for us.

So now you know. We can both stop working - stop trying so hard - to earn grace that was a gift in the first place. We can recognize that, while in theory we ought to be able to stop sinning, our sin-nature is going to cause us to mess it up every now and again...and guess what? Before God created the world, He knew this about us. It doesn't shock Him when we sin. We can recognize that God promises to hang onto us forever, despite our sin and faithlessness - and through that promise we can see a lot about God's character. 

And in light of that knowledge we can choose to live in a way that reflects who God is. Not because it will save us. But because we want to, out of joyful expression of who God is to us. 

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[1] I am indebted to Professor John Correia and his stunningly awesome power-point for the outline format used in this blog.

[2] Concept retrieved from when Pastor John taught out of Romans at West Greenway Bible Church

Romans 9-11: What About Israel?

Before reading this next post, I would encourage you to click here for an up-to-date example of how Israel is doing these days.

Now that you've (hopefully) read up on your current events in the middle east, you might be asking yourself, OK, well then, what about God's promises to Israel?

If we journey back to Genesis 15 we see God establish a covenant with father Abraham, where God promised to establish a great nation out of Israel, starting with his son, Isaac. The nation of Israel has been God's chosen people from the very beginning. Throughout Exodus, Joshua, Judges, and all of the rest of the Old Testament, all we see is God being faithful to Israel - even in the face of their seriously legit rebellion[1]. But then if we jump forward to the time of the Roman Empire, Israel is a captive people. Rome is the ruling power, and no one from the nation of Israel is sitting on the throne. Jesus Himself acknowledges to the people that Caesar was a ruling authority, so much so that they were to pay taxes to him. (cf. Luke 23- 25).That doesn't sound like the establishment of a "fruitful and plentiful nation" to me.

So what then? Did God abandon Israel? Did He go back on His promises to His chosen people?  

If these questions are answered "yes"...what does that mean about everything God promised to us back in Romans 6-8? Remember all that jazz about the Zombie Sin Nature? And how nothing can separate us from the love of God?...If God can go back on His promises to Israel, how can we be sure that He won't go back on his promises to us - the Gentiles who aren't included in that covenant?

Romans 9-11 gives us a clearer understanding of God's relationship to Israel, why they are suffering as a nation right now, and what will happen for them in the future.

Chapter 9 could be summed up in a simple sentence: God chose Israel. Period. End of story. He didn't need a reason, and Israel certainly didn't do anything to earn His favor (in fact, they repeatedly fell into their own sin.) God made that choice because...well, He just did.

God's sovereign choice as illustrated in 9:1-29 [2]  reminds me a lot of the old-school cartoon Pokemon. Remember the main character, Ash Ketchum - who was his main guy, the Pokemon you NEVER saw him without?

Now, tell me truly - WHAT is so special about this weird little...pack-rat-meets-tiger-meets-hamster-meets-monsoon-thunder-storm? I mean, ok fine, he can shoot lightning at people. But did you ever watch the show? Pikachu was moody, obnoxious, often disobedient, and...honestly, just less cool than some of the other Pokemon. And Ash ALWAYS picked him. "I choose...YOU, Pikachu!" Without fail, Ash always picked Pikachu. Sometimes when it was clearly to his detriment to rely on the pack-rat-hamster-lightning-death thing. He never traded him for better Pokemon, never swapped him out for one that could help him win. 

I think God behaved the same way with Israel. The covenant He made with them was binding to His character, and He continued to choose them, even when they were moody. Unfaithful. Obnoxious. Disobedient. And they couldn't even do so much as throw lightning at people. They had nothing to offer God. And yet God chose them anyway, and was completely justified in His choice. 

Now, does that mean that God doesn't sometimes hide His face or discipline His people?

...raise your hand if you feel you've ever experienced discipline from God.

Ok, the rest of you are lying or fooling yourselves. 

God has every right to discipline His people. Especially when they stop calling out to God and trusting Him, which is exactly what happens in Romans 10. Paul explains Israel's position in verse 14:

"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 who bring the sound of good news!' But not all the Israelites accepted the good news."

The big problem here was that the Jews of that day didn't all accept Jesus as God. Part of their agreement with the Lord was that they would call out to Him in times of trouble and then be saved.* The problem is, they didn't recognize Jesus' full divinity - they didn't call upon the name of Jesus.[3]

 There's a take-home lesson here - did you catch it? When we don't call upon Jesus in the midst of our trouble, God will not deliver us from it. Not until we call out His name and put our trust in Him. The longer we refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the deliverer, the harder our lives can become. Just sayin'. 

 But one of the things I've learned to love about Paul's letter to Rome is that there's always a turning point. Always. And in this case, it comes in chapter 11.

"I ask then. Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject His people whom He foreknew." Romans 11:1

There it is. Plain and simple - as clear as Scripture could possibly be. God did not reject His people. Now you might be sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm not Jewish, so what does this whole post have to do with me?" 

 Newsflash: if you're not Jewish, you're a Gentile. So it has everything to do with us. 

"Again I ask. Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous." Romans 11:11

Basically it says this: without Israel rejecting the Lord, the gospel might never have been made available to the Gentiles. And without the gospel being presented to the Gentiles, Israel might never be won back to God. We all have to work together on this one, because we are all being drawn back into God. 

What might that look like in your life? Maybe praying for the nation of Israel for them to name the name of Jesus? Maybe it looks like being open to ministering to your Jewish friends? Maybe it looks as simple as being aware of the fact that God is faithful to keep His word even when we aren't - and He reserves the right to discipline us accordingly when we stray off and forget to name His name. 

Maybe it's as simple as remembering our place in relation to who God is. 

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[1] This information taken from Dr. Paul Benware’s Genesis-Song of Solomon notes from Fall 2010, as well as his Prophets class notes from Spring 2011 

[2] Information taken from Professor John Correia’s slide show for Acts - Rev

*See Exodus and the story of the serpents in the desert. It's gnarly. 

[3] Information taken from class discussion during John Correia’s class as well as Dr. Benware’s Gen-Song class

Romans 5-8: Eternal Security vs. The Zombie Sin Nature

Before we jump into today’s discussion, I want to make sure everyone is on the same page. Let’s review, shall we? Big picture:

What does that faith mean for us? Chapter five does a fine job of explaining it. Because we have the assurance that we get to go to heaven we:

#1 - have peace with God through Jesus (Romans 5:1-2)

#2 – can have joy even if we are facing suffering, because of the perseverance, character and hope it produces in us (Romans 5:3-5)

#3 – are free to live without the immediate wrath of God on us – because of Jesus. (Romans 5: 9-11)

However, there still seems to be this epic death-match between our new life in Christ and sin. But we know that when Christ died and rose again, He conquered death and sin (cf. Luke 24:46) – He wiped it out. Throw-down over, right?

Well….not necessarily. See, throughout chapters 6 and 7 we are faced with this dichotomy – how it should be, and how it actually is.

Chapter 6 tells us that we don’t belong to sin anymore – we belong to God. And when Christ died on the cross and rose again, he took sin with it. According to Romans 6:10 “The death [Christ] died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.” (NIV)

This should mean that sin no longer gives us any trouble. Generally when something dies it can’t come back and bother us because its dead and no longer an issue. That’s how its supposed to be – dead things stay dead.

Enter : The zombie sin-nature.[1]

It stalks you like a crazy ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. It knows where you live. It knows what you’re thinking. It’s like…the scariest, most threatening and devastating version of Santa Claus you’ve ever had the displeasure of being exposed to. It knows where you’ve been, and usually always finds you, regardless of where you’re going. And at your moments of weak resolve, it pounces on you, devouring your goodness and dragging you back into its miserable, flesh-eating lair.

Sounds like either: the best horror zombie flick ever created OR a day in the life of an average Christian.

So basically, the daily throw-down goes a little something like this:

“You have been set free form sin and have become slaves to righteousness.” (Romans 6:18, NIV)

“As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature…” (Romans 7:17-18, NIV)

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NIV)

 “So I find this law at work: when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.” (Romans 7:21). 

So what can we do to combat this zombie-sin nature? Is there any hope for us when we can’t seem to stop sinning? (Or my personal favorite) Does God give up on us when our zombie-sin nature gets the better of us?

Once again, we find our turning point in the following chapter. Romans 8:1 and 8:35-39 dealt to me the greatest hand of hope I’ve ever received – that even after my zombie sin nature nabs me again and again –

“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NIV)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.” Romans 8:35-39.

It's as if God has us wrapped in a protective force-field once we accept Christ. Once we're inside that shield, there isn't anything that can make it's way in and wrench us away from God's unending love. And that's a pretty extensive list that Paul gives us in this passage. None of those things - not even ourselves - is powerful enough to break the shield that God has put around us in Jesus Christ. There's no way my zombie sin nature is ever going to make it into that shield and  take me away from God. It might still nip at my flesh a little bit, but that has no bearing on whether I go to heaven or not, whether God will still love me or not, whether everything is going to work out ok or not. 

which is pretty cool. [2]

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[1] This concept was a collaborative discussion between me and John Correia one night at Bible study, which led to him posting a blog about this very issue. See www.biblicalframework.blogspot.com, go to the January archives, click “(Un)Dead to Me!”

[2] I owe my inspiration for the drawings in this blog to the writer of Hyperbole and a Half, www.hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com

Romans 1-4: Stop. Working.

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness…” Romans 1:18.

When I first sat down and decided to read Romans, that’s about as far as I got before discouragement got the better of me. At which point I closed the book and turned on the TV to watch Shark Week…it seemed to be more of a spirit-lifter than what the word of God had just told me.

My point is, without understanding what the whole book is about, scriptures like this can lead new believers in the wrong direction – that is, believing that we somehow have to “undo” or “make up for” the godlessness in our lives at present or in our pasts. I read this verse and promptly missed the entire message of the book of Romans.

Maybe you’re like me, and you got it in your mind somehow that the Christian faith is all about how we can work our way to righteousness, earn God’s favor by what we do, and escape the wrath of God by being as awesome as we know how to be. Which would be great – but you know as well as I do that for as awesome as we try to be, we typically just end up…well, sucking. Even if we know Christ as Savior and Lord, at the end of the day we mess things up more often than we get it right. Over and over again. And if all we do us mess it up over and over again, how can we possibly live the lives that God wants us to? How can we possibly earn his favor? How will we ever make it to heaven? What will become of us? Whyyyyyyy?

Are you ready to put the book down and go watch Shark Week, too? I can relate to the feeling. But those questions, that doubt - that isn't what God is trying to drive home to you and me through the book of Romans. What He was trying to convey in the book of Romans s is actually quite simple: Faith alone in Christ alone is the ONLY work that will count when it comes to going to heaven.

If we’re ever going to understand (1) how to get to heaven and (2) how to live life without trying to earn grace that can’t be earned, (and consequently driving ourselves insane) we need to look at how humankind got into this predicament in the first place. Which is why Romans 1-4 are so important.

Romans was written by Paul to the Roman church in about A.D. 56 They were a group of people who were caught in this idea that they had to follow every letter of the law perfectly to earn God's favor. [1]. (Kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it?) 

Now, Paul’s writings can be kind of difficult to understand sometimes[2], so I’ve decided that there are certain verses that can best be summed up in a comic book strip.

Romans 1:18-19 - God reveals Himself through creation, so that mankind would not have an excuse to say "We didn't know you were there, God."

Romans 1:21-25 - People turn away from God anyways and turn to nasty, evil things instead...go figure...

Romans 1:26-32 - God, being the just God that He is, gives humankind over to their sinfulness, exacting His judgment through the consequences of our actions. And despite the suckiness of those consequences, humankind keeps ignoring God.

In case you were curious, that’s how mankind ended up being so awful to the very core. Humankind has a history of turning from God and refusing to see Him in the blatant evidence around us. And then we wonder why bad things happen and consequences are really harsh and we wreck our lives.Weird.

You might be sitting there thinking, “But, I don’t do any of those things. I don’t worship sticks. I don’t get drunk or high. I don’t have sex and pursue debauchery. I’m good, right?” Wrong. 

According to Romans 2 we are in NO position to judge each other, because we're guilty of the very deeds we tend to judge people on. Ponder, if you will, these song lyrics: “We’re all guilty of the same things – we think the thoughts whether or not we see them through.”[3]

 How are we feeling about ourselves now?

No, no wait! Turn Shark Week off! I swear, it’s about to get better!!

This is where God’s righteousness and faithfulness swoops in and basically saves us from getting what we deserve. Verse 3:21-24 is the major turning point:

“But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” (NIV)

What does that mean for us?

To put it simply: Stop working. The only way to achieve righteousness in God’s eyes is through faith ALONE in Christ ALONE. No works, no deeds, no bust-your-tail-to-lead-the-most-sinless-life-ever. The only way to be justified – declared right before God – is to put faith alone in Christ who died to cover our filthy unrighteousness. Paul then uses father Abraham as an example of what that faith looks like:

“What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” –Romans 4:3

This would have made radical sense to the original audience because Abraham was the guy God made the original covenant with. He was a big deal. But Paul clearly points out that he wasn't a big deal because of anything he did - he was a big deal because of his faith in what God could do. 

I don’t know about you, but life started to look a whole lot easier – a whole lot simpler – as soon as this idea of “works” was kicked out of my general salvation. If all I have to do is believe that Christ’s sacrifice covers my sins and His works are sufficient for me to be declared righteous, that means I have so much extra time and energy and emotion to spend on more important things, like serving in church with the right heart, like homework, like spending quality time with the people who matter to me. Or watching Shark Week.

How about you? What works do you think God is calling you to let go of? Where in your walk with Christ can you stand to exercise less faith in your own deeds and more faith alone in Christ alone?

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[1] I am indebted to Professor John Correia and his stunningly awesome power-point for this information

[2] If you have a hard time understanding Paul’s writing, I highly recommend reading out of a more thought-for-thought translation, such as the New Living Translation or the New International Version. 

[3] Lyrics taken from “Forgiven” By Relient K