{ Delving into the Scriptures }

Romans 6:5-11
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! Today we will continue our reading in Romans 6, focusing on sin.

I think we will find today’s scripture rather simple to start with – as Paul sums it up nicely at the end – Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To start with – obviously we have not physically died yet – though we are to consider our ‘old man’ or ‘old self’ dead. We also know that though once we are saved we are dead to the old self, there will still be times that we will sin.

But now – it is different. Why?

In our ‘old self’, we were content to live in sin – sin wasn’t an issue, even if we knew it was sin. Now – we will still sin, but we are no longer comfortable doing it – we don’t want to live in sin anymore, and when we do, we are regretful (or angry at ourselves) for it. This is the key difference – we have moved from the place that we were more than happy (ignorant even) to live in sin – to a place where sin is something we don’t want. As Paul mentions above, ‘that we should no longer be slaves to sin‘.

For what really is a slave? A slave is someone who does someone else’s will – they have no will of their own,  no choice in the matter. We were slaves to sin – so we had no choice, we were just going to sin regardless. But we are free of that now – we do have a choice.

So, we are no longer comfortable with sin, and we now have a choice in the matter.  The words ‘reckon yourselves‘ speaks of a state of mind – we need to think of ourselves already in that new place, without the flesh. We need to make the choices to avoid sin, and keep it out of our lives.

Firstly, take encouragement from 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) – The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

And finally, Galatians 2:20 (which many people know) summarizes everything we have been talking about today well -

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

- We have been crucified with Christ – our old selves are gone. Our desire to live a sinful and selfish life is gone. We are no longer slaves to sin.

- It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me – We now have the Spirit of God within us – guiding our desires. We look to live for Him now, instead of us!

- And the life which I now live in the flesh – yes, we are still physically alive, and we will still have ‘troubles of the flesh’

- I live by faith in the Son of God – This is the key here – we live by faith. We beleive that we are saved, and that God will look after us, guide us, provide a way to escape temptation for us, teach us, love us.

- who loved me and gave Himself for me – the gospel summed up in 8 words!

Lord God, thank you for freeing us from being slaves to sin. We know temptations will continue to come to us while we are still in this body – show us your way of escape – teach us to endure and no longer accept the bondage of slavery, but choose freedom in You. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: Romans

So. Hows those new years resolutions coming along? I read somewhere recently the average resolution lasts 17 days – and we are almost there!

Are you still reading your Bible? If not – get back to it! If you are – congratulations! And let me give you this encouragement -

Matthew 4:4

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Yep – these are the same to verses as last time – But they still apply! The Bible doesn’t need to be a new years resolution – it needs to be a way of life. Make it yours.

Lord God, help us to understand the importance of Your Word, and how it helps our relationship with You. Remind us, prod us, push us, pull us to read Your Word daily, and learn from it. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: bible

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! Today we are starting out on Romans 6, which changes focus a little from the start of Romans to now look specifically at sin. Remember the context of Romans 5 (the Bible didn’t have chapters and verses when it was written – they were added later for our benefit) that all have sinned since Adam, and where sin abounded, Grace abounded more!

So if the book were to stop there, we could come up with an argument that maybe if we were to sin a little more, we would get even more grace. So if we were to sin a whole lot more – then we would abound in grace, so lets sin as hard as we can, that grace might abound! It is known that this was a way of thinking after Jesus death, and believed this section is now written to counter that specific doctrine. It is amazing – we have a doctrine of grace, and yet people want to twist it so they can continue to live the way they always have – or even sin more than they did before knowing Christ intentionally! Think about it – doesn’t it already sound wrong?

I think Paul covers the question with clear authority for a start - Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! (emphasis mine). No! Of course not! A more casual translation might say ‘no way, that’s crazy talk!’. But why not?

Much of chapter 6 is devoted to refuting this false doctrine, but we are given a first answer immediately – we have died to sin. Not only that, our sin was figuratively buried with Jesus because of His death on the cross (He died as the ultimate sacrifice for sin for all of us), and now just as He was resurrected on the third day, we have been ‘made alive’ again with Him.

This is the start of the concept of ‘new life’. Yes, we will continue to sin, and have sin in our lives – that is just the way of it (wait till we get to Chapter 7, or read ahead if you want to hear it now!) – but we no longer live in sin – we no longer try to sin, or go out of our way to sin. The desire lives on in our flesh – our bodies – but we are no longer chained to that desire. In fact, our desire is moving the other way – to avoid sin. We now start to want to get away from sin, and to get it out of our lives!

There are many people in the world who ‘live in sin’. They aim to sin. Many of them don’t even categorise it as sin – it is just what they choose to do. Be it sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, crime, whatever – it is the thing they are ‘living in’. They go out of their way to do those things because it makes them feel good, or powerful, or takes them away from the cares of life for a time (and brings them back to reality with a hard whack usually). This is living in sin – and this is what we are free of now!

So what does it mean to ‘walk in newness of life’? Think about it – to walk is an action – to move along from one place to another. Usually in the Bible to walk in something means to do it, or continually do it. We don’t get our new life and them just sit back and relax! No! We need to ‘walk in it’ – constantly live and remind ourselves of this new life, and slowly move from the life of sin we once lived, to a life of holiness before our God. It’s not an instant transformation – forgiveness of sins is, but getting to the point where we are walking daily with God and avoiding sin all together is going to take some time.

So let’s get walking!

Lord God, give us the strength to walk in new life with You. Teach us to respond to our desire to sin with certainly not! Continue to give us revelation into what it means to be a child of Yours. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: Romans

Matthew 4:4

But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”

2 Timothy 3:16-17

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Time for a quick off topic post. Have you considered how important it is to read your Bible? Take a read again of those verses above in that context.

For me, I read online using youversion.com – I link every scripture there too. Why? For me, online is easier – I read on my laptop or iphone, and it marks for me what I read.

That’s right – I have a daily plan, with set goals every day. I use the new reading plans here to help me do that (right now I am doing  Bible in 90 days). It might not be for you – but for me it helps, and it might just be the resource you need. You can choose from one of many reading plans, customise it to be faster or slower, or just create your own. You can also share your plan and set accountabilities if that helps.

Take a look - http://www.youversion.com/about/reading-plans

No, I’m not affiliated with them – I just think it’s a great idea! So get on with it and read your Bible – whichever way works for you!

God, place in us a desire to know you more, to read your word more, to understand you and what you want for our lives more. Help us to be all that you created us to be. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: bible

Romans 5:20-21

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! Today we will wrap up Romans 5, which with these two verses gives us an excellent summary of the message of Romans so far. Next time we move into Romans 6 – Sin…

The first thing we note is we are back on the law. The law entered that we might recognise sin for what it is. Sin wasn’t created by the law – just exposed. Just as when we shine a light on an object the light doesn’t create it – it is just the tool for revelation. So the law entered to reveal to us the things we were already doing.

And think about this some more, when sin ‘abounded’ it means it ‘grew’, or ‘grew abundantly’. In reality, our knowledge of sin had to grow to the point that we recognise there is nothing we can do about it on our own. We are stuck, drowning, incapable of saving ourselves. It is the law shining the light on our sin that brings us to this point – that is, the knowlege that we are stuck in our sins, with no way out!

And it was this revelation of sin that brings us to ‘grace through righteousness’ – for despite our sin, God’s grace is greater. And it is through this grace that the righteousness of God is imputed to us, which leads us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So lets break it down a little more – these verses are really a great summary of the message of the gospel!

Law - The law entered the scene that we might recognise our sin – it was always there, it has just shed light upon it

Sin - with the light of the law upon us, it becomes pretty obvious pretty fast that there is not much we can do about it – we are stuck in our sins! Powerless, there is nothing we can do of ourselves.

Death - The final outcome if Sin – not just physical death, but eternal death and separation from God.

Grace - Gods eternal grace to us – because He loves us. What does grace mean? The shortest definition I think is ‘unmerited favor’ – so we have God’s unmerited favor on our lives. I think that’s awesome, because I know for sure I don’t deserve it! (see sin, law )

Righteousness - not ours, but God’s righteousness imputed to us through Jesus when we beleive in Him.

Eternal Life – the outcome of us beleiving in God, and God’s righteousness being sent our way.

Jesus Christ our Lord – The whole reason we are still here – and where we are today – because He took our sins upon Himself – that we might be declared Righteous before God. The complete definition of love and grace!

I pray that all of us will gain more revelation of this into our lives – first, the revelation of where we are without God (stuck in our sins and rapidly on the path to death), and where we can be with Jesus in our lives (free of our sins and declared righteous before God!). If you ever need a quick reminder of the key points of the Gospel, here it is!

God, I pray You will continue to teach us Your Word, teach us and give us revelation so that we might not just know and understand, but act upon that and live in Your grace! In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: Romans

Happy new year to you all!

As we close out 2009, I just wanted to list out the most popular posts for Delving into the Scriptures – it’s interesting to see what people are looking for and want to read – the number one slot has double the views of number 2, which was double the next again!

So, people want to know God is Faithful – and how to deal with hard times in our life (which are very closely related!). I can’t wait to see what the end of 2010 will bring should we all still be here!

God is Faithful and Just – Romans 3:1-8

Rejoicing in Difficulty – Romans 5:1-5

Made Righteous – Romans 5:12-19

Saved from Wrath (the reality of Hell) – Romans 5:6-11

Yet while we were enemies – Romans 5:6-11

God Bless, and may 2010 be a year where you grow closer to Him, regardless of whatever else happens.

Drewe

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Posted in: Off Topic

Romans 5:12-19

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the offense. For if by the one man’s offense many died, much more the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned. For the judgment which came from one offense resulted in condemnation, but the free gift which came from many offenses resulted in justification. For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)

Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! Today, we will look at what appears to be quite an involved section of scripture – and whilst there is truly a lot in there, there is a very simple message to come out of it.

• Everyone has sinned – personally.
• Through Adam, we also all inherited a sinful nature
• The result? Judgement and condemnation

Don’t stop here! That is just the first part of the message! The key here is everyone has sinned – both through personal sin, and by inheritance of the sinful nature that has existed since Adam sinned. There is no escaping sin. And even before the ‘law’ was given with Moses, sin still abounded (for example, look at the passage about Noah and the people of his time). There was not yet an express commandment to break (ie, Law), but the sinful nature of man was in full swing. So, we have established (again) that all have sinned – there is no one who can claim to be sinless (Jesus excepted).

So what is the second part of the message?

• Jesus died on the cross to save ‘all men’
• That death gained us justification
• In turn, we will be made righteous

So now we come to it – it’s the same message as we have been getting up to now in Romans. Jesus died for our sins, and we are now clean of them! And even as I type it, it remains amazing to me…

So lets cover one little tidbit in here,  ’the free gift came to all men‘. What does it mean? Is everyone saved? The quick answer – No! But can everyone be saved? Yes! The free gift is available to anyone who wants it. And it is just that – an undeserved gift that we had no right to expect or ability to gain on our own. But yet it is ours if we just ask for it.

And that, is the amazing summary of not just the book of Romans, but of the core message of the Bible. Keep it in focus always!

Lord God, continue to teach us to understand Your message to us – that of Jesus. Teach us in some way to know what it truly means, and how we can respond. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: Romans

Romans 5:6-11
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Welcome back to Delving into the Scriptures! This is the fourth (and last – though we could certainly go more!) post on this paragraph in Romans. In case you haven’t followed along, here are the first three -

At the Right Time
The Record is Clean
Saved from Wrath

Today we will cover Verses 10 and 11. Verse 10 is basically a redo of Verse 9, from a different viewpoint.

For if when we were enemies…. Jesus came to save us from our sins – when we were in sin, and in a position of eternal separation from Him. We were  enemies of God – we were certainly objects of displeasure, as we had all sinned, and we all went our own way, contrary to what we were created for. Yet while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God!

God loved us so much, that despite our position with Him, he went out of His way to make us friends again – to put us back in right relationship with Him. I am sure you could also think of many parallels in our own lives, but focus on this – while we certainly didn’t deserve it, Jesus went out of His way to find you and make you right with God.

So since that was done while we were enemies – how much more will it be completed now we are not! For if He would do that for an enemy, for one who truly deserved nothing but ‘wrath and punishment’ (see the saved from wrath post), what will He then do for us who are friends?

Another way to look at it also is that Jesus death on the cross resulted in our Justification – resulted in the record being wiped clean for those that accept Jesus – but His resurrection to new life guarantees and completes our salvation. It not only proved He was who He said He was – but it completed the work that had to be done for us.

So onto verse 11 – what is our response? To rejoice in God through Lord Jesus Christ! It means our response to our reconciliation with God is one of thankfulness and one of worship. Every time I think of the effects of Jesus death on the cross – that of our salvation – that despite our previous lives, despite the things we have done, our record of sin is clean and we are right with God – that brings amazement and worship. For me – it is an act I cannot comprehend – the depth of that one act to reconcile us while we were in the wrong, is just beyond my earthly abillity to comprehend. I know what it means, I know it’s effect, and I thank God for it – but I still cannot be anything but amazed as it is beyond my comprehension!

So to summarize where we have been over the past few weeks

- Jesus came at the right time for us to be saved

- His work on the cross Justified us – that is, our record of sin is gone, we are once again right with God

- If while we were enemies God still went to make things right for us – how much more will he complete it now we are friends!

- And finally – our response. Thankfulness. Worship. Pure amazement!

I pray that God will one day help me understand truly what happened 2000 years ago, even give me a glimpse of understanding into what that truly meant – but I know enough now to know I am saved and to thank God. And that, for now, is enough.

Lord God, give us revelation into the work you did for us on the cross, into our position with you now that we are saved, teach us not to take this for granted but continue to be amazed and thankful. In Jesus Name. Amen

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Posted in: Romans

Romans 5:6-11
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Welcome once again to Delving into the Scriptures! After a short 2 week break we are back, still focussed on this section of scripture from Romans.

Last time we focussed on vs 9, and how we have been ‘justified’ – and that our record of sin is clean – not punishment completed, but as if we have never sinned! I am still amazed when I think about that fact – that it is as though our sin never occurred. It is almost beyond comprehension!

But moving on to the rest of the verse, ‘we shall be saved from wrath through Him‘. Firstly, just remember it is through Jesus Christ we are saved from wrath. But what is God’s wrath that we are saved from?

Simply? It is that place we call hell. Hell is not some fictional place that funny little pointy eared devils with tails run around with pitchforks prodding people. It is nothing comparable to anything on this planet, anything that we experience (though I sure that there are some things that come close). In fact, if you were to compare references of heaven to hell in the New Testament, you would see that hell is mentioned more times than heaven - if you believe in a literal heaven, then you have no choice but to believe in a literal hell.

So, what is this place called hell?

It is a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 8:12)

It is a place where people scream for mercy, have memories, are tormented, feel alone, cannot escape (Luke 16:23-31).

It is a place of darkness (Revelation 9:2)

It is a lake of fire (Revelation 20:15)

It is a place of everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9).

This is just a small selection of scriptures to summarize. So hell does exist, and it is eternal – and this is God’s wrath. Based on the description above, I am pretty keen to not end up there! I am sure we could do a pretty long study of hell and God’s wrath, but I think that’s enough to get the general idea and make sure we don’t end up there (see Philippians 2:12)

So hell is a real place – real, eternal and not somewhere you want to be – but we are saved from that through Jesus Christ. And that again is something we can be thankful for!

Lord Jesus, I pray that you will teach us your Word, teach us the reality of heaven, and the reality of hell, that we might be reminded not only of what would have awaited us, but of what we were saved from. Teach us to be thankful!In Jesus Name, Amen.

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Posted in: Romans

Romans 5:6-11
For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Welcome once again to Delving into the Scriptures! Today we will look more into Romans 5:6-11 – and primarily, Justification.

Following on from our last post on this verse (here) which covered verses 6-8, verse 9 points out three things. We are Justified, we are ‘saved from wrath’, and both of these things come through Jesus – and His death on the cross.

What is to be justified? It means basically to be declared innocent or guiltless – in other words, as if you had never done anything wrong! We have not ‘served our sentence’ and been released like a criminal – for how could we? The punishment for sin is death – and eternal separation from God. There is no ‘release’ from this sin – there is no coming out if jail at the end of our sentence. But Jesus work on the cross is such that it is as if we had never sinned! The record is clean, we are free to start over.

This has some amazing outcomes if you think it through. If you had never sinned – if the record is truly clean – then all of the things in your past are gone. There is no reason to dwell on them for a start, there is no reason for them to be a part of your life anymore – you are ‘free’. Please remember this is in a spiritual sense – if you murder someone on this earth, you will still be rightly held responsible on this earth for that act – but you can be free of your sin before God and start your life anew.

It also means we have the opportunity to move away from our old life, from the things in our lives which caused us to sin in the past – because the record is clean. It doesn’t mean we will be instantly cured of any desire to sin (and that is coming later in Romans as well), but we have the opportunity to fight it anew – because the old sin is gone. It is not a ‘continuation’ of sin in a way – it is not your ’50th’ offence – in the spiritual realm it is your first offence again when you sin again, and you that is really a much better place to work from! We know and live in the hope that one day we will leave this body and be totally free of the problems that come along with being here – but we can do our best in the mean time to ensure we don’t sin.

So – we are saved from wrath (or anger) – and I think God’s anger would not be something I would line up to see – let alone be on the receiving end of! And this is because it is though we have never sinned – because of the work of Jesus on the cross.

And that is what it means to be justified.

And it gets better from here, but we will cover that next time!

Lord God, thank you for wiping the record of our sins clean. Thank you for the opportunity to start again, teach us how to respond, teach us how to live for you now that we are once again in your presence. In Jesus Name. Amen.

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Posted in: Romans