26 March 2016

 Scripture: Romans 6:1-14

Observations:

Carrying off of the end of the last passage, that where sin increased, grace abounded more, Paul rebuts the question hanging in the air: "Shall we continue to sin so that grace may abound?"

He doesn't just say, "no." No, Paul very adamantly rejects that question, responding with one in kind: "How can we, who died to sin, still live in it?" Even more so, he draws the connection that, as we are baptised into Christ, we are baptised into Christ's death, so that, just as Christ was raised into life, that we would be as well. How lightly do we take that when we continue to sin?

Let me rephrase that: In accepting Christ, you take part in the death of God's Son, receiving freely-offered life.

In continuing to sin, we say that Christ's sacrifice amounts to nothing.

In a sense, it's like taking whatever amount of money you've earned from your inheritance and spending it all on prostitutes.

It is a blatant disregard of Christ's sacrifice, that we continue to live in sin!

As Paul continues, we see that it is not only a blatant disregard, but it is an impossibility. We have been crucified with Christ so that we may be no longer enslaved to sin. And if we have died with Christ, then we have also been resurrected into life with him, as Paul reasons, a life that is not subject to death any longer. Paul makes it clear that Christ died to sin and lives to God, illustrating that, if we are to be mirrors of Christ, then we, too, must die to sin and live to God.

For this reason, it is absurd that a Christian would return to a life of sin, that eh would so cheaply forsake the sacrifice of God. Indeed, I would argue that a desire to remain in sin is pathognomonic for a still-unsaved soul, which brings us to this last segment:

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace." Romans 6:12-14

Paul is speaking directly. Do not allow sin to reign in your life. Paul's not saying that Christians don't ever sin. He's saying that Christians seek after God, not sin, giving themselves over to him, because sin no longer has jurisdiction over them.

Application:

WE ARE NO LONGER UNDER THE CONSTRAINTS OF SIN!

So why, then, do we live and act as though we are?

We act as though our sins run us, that they determine all of our actions, attitudes, and thoughts, when we should be living that way with regard to God.

Now, this is not saying that Christians will never sin, but that Christians will not have a mentality or predilection of sin anymore.

22 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 5:14-21

Observations:

We start off, finishing Paul's complicated thought from before, "Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come." (v 14) So we see that sin is still being considered and punished by death, even among those who did not sin as Adam did, men like Joseph or Job. (I'm not saying they were perfect and did not sin, but that they did not blatantly act in contradiction of an edict from God)

From there, Paul segues into talking about Christ. He makes the obvious comparison, that, just as death came to man through one man, so life came to man through Christ. However, that is where the similarity ends. Paul makes some important contrasts between Adam and Christ.

• In Adam, many died through one sin. In Christ, the free gift of God's grace has abounded for many.
• In Adam, the judgment of one sin brought condemnation. In Christ, the gift, given after many sins, brings justification, that is, absolution.
• In Adam, death reigned. In Christ, those who receive the grace of God reign in life abundantly

This draws Paul to the conclusion that just as one sin led to the condemnation of all men, so did one act of righteousness, love, and grace lead to absolution and life for all men.

He then returns to the idea of the law with this thought: "Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more." What he's saying is that, because of the law, sin became defined and grew in magnitude from a corruption of man to direct disobedience of God's commands. Because of that, however, it also increased the magnitude of the grace given to man. 

Consider it this way: One of your coworkers offends you in a way that violates your internal, unvoiced boundaries. Still, you forgive him or her. Shortly thereafter, another of your coworkers offends you, crossing a boundary you've clearly expressed from day one. Again, you choose to forgive him or her. Which forgiveness required and gave more grace, the offence which was done in innocence and ignorance or the offence which was made known previously to be an offence?

Similarly, then, despite our sin, our offence against God, God's grace reigns through the righteousness of Christ, redeeming us from death and placing us instead under life.

God's forgiveness is given in grace. He would have been perfectly justified to condemn mankind to death in punishment for the sin that, thanks to Adam, reigns in us, but, instead, because of his love for us, took upon himself the punishment and consequence of our sin, an act enabled only by his perfect righteousness and, taking on the form and nature of man, he offered himself as the pure, unblemished sacrifice, fully God and fully man, sufficient where mere animal sacrifice was not to atone for the sin of all men for all time. 

How great, then, is the grace and forgiveness of God, that He would take upon himself the punishment due to us for the purpose of enabling us to come to him in righteousness, having communion with him once again?

17, 20 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 5:12-13

Observations:

All right. In this passage, Paul is making three distinct points.

1) Sin, and death, the punishment of sin, came into the world through Adam and has permeated mankind, even when the Law was not yet given. (vv 12-14)

Now, there are a couple points here worth noting. Paul explicitly notes that all of sin entered the world through Adam. It is because of his sin that mankind is inherently sinful. Next, he notes that, even though the law had not yet been given, sin was still considered sin before Moses' time.

I will say that verse 13 took me a while to understand. So, I broke it into parts and consulted some commentaries

1. [F]or sin indeed was in the world before the law was given.
   This is pretty straightforward to me. Adam's disobedience constituted sin, ergo sin was present before the law was given to Moses, generations later
2. but sin is not counted where there is no law.
   This was a good deal trickier. At first, it appears like Paul is saying that sin was present, but not punished, which we know is not so, after all, we have the flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the curse of Cain, and even the exile of Adam and Eve. Not to mention, death, the prescribed punishment, had been in the world the whole time as sin had become such that God began scaling back the lifespan of man from multiple hundreds to barely a single hundred. So, I looked at the Greek and both uses of "law" involve the same word, which doesn't help. Next, I looked at some commentaries, namely Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, A Popular Commentary on the New Testament, John Wesley's Explanatory Notes, Jameson, Fausset, & Brown Commentary, John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, and The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (e-Sword is a valuable reference tool). Of all those, I think the last two put it best (Though Popular had some good exposition into the varying theories surrounding this passage) :
   
   "but sin is not imputed when there is no law. This looks like an objection, that if there was no law before Moses's time, then there was no sin, nor could any action of man be known or accounted by them as sinful, or be imputed to them to condemnation; or rather it is a concession, allowing that where there is no law, sin is not imputed; but there was a law before that law of Moses, which law was transgressed, and the sin or transgression of it was imputed to men to condemnation and death, as appears from what follows." - Gill
   
   "for until the law] This and the following verses are not a parenthesis: see on Rom_5:12.—“Until” here practically = “before.” The period “from Adam to Moses” is in view, the Law of Moses being taken as the first elaborate statute-giving of God for man. “Laws” existed long before Moses; e.g. those of Marriage, of the sanctity of Life, and of the Sabbath. But the Mosaic Law covered the field of duty in a way unknown before; so as to suggest the question whether human beings, in the previous ages, in some instances, had not satisfied the claims of then-known duty, and so escaped death. But no: in those ages, as in the Mosaic, “death reigned;” therefore there was sin; therefore there was broken law; and that law, in numberless cases, (viz. infantine,) must have been broken only “in Adam;” for it was unknown to the persons in question.law … law] Both these words in the Gr. are without the article. In spite of some difficulty, we must interpret the first of the Mosaic Law, and the second of Law in some other sense; here probably in the sense of the declared Will of God in general, against which, in a particular case, Adam sinned, and we “in him.”is not imputed] So as to bring penalty. Therefore, had there been in no sense a (broken) law in the primeval age, there would have been no death. But death was universal." - Cambridge
   
   So, then, at the very least, we see that mankind is punished for its sin according to Adam's disobedience. We can also see that mankind is punished for its inherent sinful nature, a result of Adam's sin. The question I would ask is whether man is punished for committed sin and, if so, according to what standard?
1. By all appearances, man is punished before the Mosaic law for committed sin. Take the examples given above: Adam and Eve's punishment and exile, the cursing of Cain, the flood, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Each of these followed the commission of some kind of transgression against God
1. In the case of Adam and Eve's punishment and exile, they were punished for direct disobedience of God's command (Gen 2:15-17). They were then exiled to be kept from eating the fruit of the tree of life, thereby escaping the final punishment of sin, death (Gen 3:22-24)
2. In the case of Cain, he was warned in advance that he was close to sinning, due to the attitude of his heart (Gen 4:5b-7). When he did sin, God declared that Abel's blood was crying out to him from the ground (Gen 4:10)
3. In the case of the flood, God decided within himself that mankind had become increasingly wicked, later disclosing that decision and punishment to Noah (Gen 6:6-7, 11-13)
4. Lastly, in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, God decided within himself that they were living in sin and disclosed that to Abraham (Gen 18:16-21)
2. 
   

15 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 5:1-11

Observations:

So, Paul begins at the tail end of yesterday: because we have been justified by our faith, we have peace with God and have access into his grace. Having access to his grace, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. (vv 1-2)

Here comes one of Paul's trickier, loaded statements: we rejoice in our sufferings

• Sufferings --> endurance
• Endurance --> character
• Character --> hope (vv 3-4)

Hope, Paul writes, does not put us to shame. Why? Because God's love has been poured into our hearts via the Holy Spirit (v 5)

Paul then breaks down the idea of God's love.

• When Christ died for us sinners, we were still weak, unable to save ourselves (v 6)
• While we humans may consider dying for the sake of another who is exceptionally good or righteous, Christ died for us while we were still living in sin, distant from him in disobedience. (vv 7-8)

Christ did for us, his then enemies, what we could not do for ourselves. In doing so, he modeled what love looks like - sacrificial and unconditional.

The effect of Christ's sacrifice, offering justification on our behalf, is that we are saved from God's wrath and judgment. (v 9) Paul presents it interestingly. If we are considered to have been reconciled to God by Christ's death, then we are saved (Gk: σώζω - saved [from death, peril], delivered, protected, healed) by his life. (v 10) Some scholars assert that this means that because Christ lives, we are eternally saved. So, we are justified by his death (that is, freed from all consequences of past and present sin) and secured by his resurrection (that is, no future sin will affect our standing before God), is what Paul seems to be saying.

Paul wraps up this segment with rejoicing. He began by speaking of rejoicing in suffering and the hope of the glory of God and he ends by speaking of rejoicing in God in gratitude for our reconciliation. (v 11) In between the "bread slices" of rejoicing, we have the filling of our literary sandwich - the reason for rejoicing in suffering, the magnitude of God's love in dying for sinners, and the reconciling and saving effects of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Application:

I'll be honest. This passage is one I have difficulty seeing how to apply. The only thing I can think of is gratitude to God for acting in such mercy. He didn't have to, but because he loved us so much, he did.

14 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 4:13-25

Observations:

Paul begins this segment following after the previous passage (remember, Paul didn't divide his epistles into handy chapters and verses, that was a later development)

So, we have the idea that Abraham's faith being counted as righteousness before the covenant of circumcision leading to Abraham being the father of both the faithful circumcised and the righteous uncircumcised, which is where Paul picks up.

Paul makes a bold statement that Abraham's promise came by faith, not by the law. He then contrasts it, that if it came from the law, faith would be null and void. It would no longer be a promise upon faith, to trust in, but a wage that is earned. To my mind, it acts almost as a filter, as any person, righteous or not, can follow a set of laws. Well, in the case of God's all-encompassing laws and high requirements, not so - no-one can follow that set of laws perfectly except Christ. Hence the promise is void, as no one would ever manage to receive it.

Then Paul makes this statement: "For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression." (v 15)

True. The law defines sin. There is now a codified set of ethics. Where before conduct could be quibbled over and considered fluid (much as in today's society), after the writing of the law there was no denying that certain acts were unacceptable, subject to trial by a supernatural, all-perfect judge.

So, the law serves to provide awareness of unrighteousness.

Instead, the promise rests on grace - it is dependent on God's action, not man's and serves as surety that all of Abraham's descendants, circumcised or not, are subject to the promise.

Paul then elaborates on the faith of Abraham in the promises of God given to him, unwavering in his belief that God could make good on his promise.

It is for that reason his faith was credited to him as righteousness.

Similarly, for us, our faith in the resurrection of Jesus and his deliverance of us from our sins, which led to our justification, will be attributed to us as righteousness

11 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 4:1-12

Observations:

So, let's review quickly the end of Romans 3.

• "One is justified by faith apart from works of the law." (v 28)
• "[God] will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith." (v 30)

Now in this passage, Paul brings two questions to the attention of the Roman church.

Q1) What was gained by Abraham according to the flesh? (v 1)

Verse two says that if Abraham were justified by works, then he would be able to boast before man, but not before God. That doesn't quite mesh well with what we know of Abraham, so thremust be some greater reason for Abraham's justification. To that end, I want to take a snapshot of the next few verses.

• "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness" (v3)
• To the worker, wages are counted as his due, not a gift (paraphrased, v 4)
• To him who did not put his faith in works, but believed God, his faith is counted as righteousness (paraphrased, v 5)
• David called blessed the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works (paraphrased, v 6)
• "Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin." (v 8)

Now, yes, I paraphrased a few verses to truncate some of the wordage, but the word I want to stress is unchanged: λογίζομαι. (Strong's numbers are great for the lay scholar)

λογίζομαι is a word meaning "to take an inventory," "to estimate," "to conclude," "to account for/of," "to impute, reason, reckon, or suppose."

Paul is saying that, just as a worker's wages are accounted (reckoned, reasoned, supposed, allocated, etc.) to him as his due according to his work, so is righteousness accounted to the one who believes in God as his due according to his faith.

Clearly, then, we can see that what Abraham gained was nothing that could be attributed to his ability. What he gained, then, was not according to the flesh, as it was not based upon his ability to keep the law, but was according to God, as it was based upon his faith.

Q2) "Is this blessing only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?" (v 9)
(Or, how was Abraham's faith counted? Was it before or after circumcision? (v 10a)

This question is key. Depending on the answer, it would affirm that either Paul is logically inconsistent and that justification by faith is contingent upon adherence to the law and circumcision is necessary, or that circumcision is unnecessary and adherence to the law is a response from faith.

Paul answers this question in the second half of verse ten, saying that circumcision came after righteousness was counted to him as the wages of his faith. Therefore, as Paul puts it, "circumcision was a sign of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised." (v 11)

This is a big deal, because that then makes him the father of the righteous uncircumcised as well as the circumcised who believe in God through faith! (v 11-12)

8 March 2016

Scripture: Romans 3:21-31

Observations:

So, right off the bat, Paul clarifies that the righteousness of God has made itself known apart from the Law. He is quick to note, however, that the Law and the prophets hint as to how it would be revealed, the specific manifestation of God's righteousness is available through faith in Jesus.

Paul answers the looming question of "Why" in just a moment.

You see, as Paul writes, he clarifies that all of us have sinned and we all deserve death because we no longer reach God's standard of righteousness.

Paul says it outright in vv 24-25. God's justification of man is a gift, one received by faith. Because of this show of righteousness, a man's sins are overlooked and God is fully able to act justly while acting mercifully towards a man's sins.

In light of all this, Paul remarks, "Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded." Because our salvation is based upon faith in Christ, we have nothing to boast over. He closes, stating that this does't mean we have no need to follow the Law. As he puts it, "[W]e uphold the law."

Application:

I cannot boast. My deliverance from temptation and sin is not of my own ability and strength, but by the mercy and grace of God who, in a display of righteousness, justice, and love, redeemed me from my sinful nature and desires through the payment of my punishment by Jesus, His Son, who is fully man and fully God, seated at the right hand of the throne of the Father.

Every victory over temptation and sin is a testament to the redemptive work taking place within me, as I am being sanctified, being remade in the image of God.

So, I cling to God and seek to honour him. I follow the Law not as a means for salvation, but because it is the directive of God for how to live. I do not boast over my successes in following the law, because I know such successes are only the providence of God,