Advent - Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation –
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life –
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
³ Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

⁴ One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Saviour.
¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
¹¹ Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
¹² Do not hand me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

¹³ I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

Wait for the Lord.

This Sunday is Advent Sunday. It is the beginning of four weeks that lead up to Christmas. And during Advent we prepare our hearts as we wait for the coming of the Saviour.

Psalm 27 is a wonderful, peaceful, meditative piece of Scripture that reminds us that we are to wait on God. The last verse summarises the theme of the Psalm: ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ Waiting is not expected to be easy, according to the psalmist. First – we wait for the Lord. Second – we must be strong, and third – we must take heart. Yes. It is not to do with lying back on the sofa, drinking a cup of tea and watching the telly while you wait for the children to come home from school (As if any of us would behave like that!).

No, as we wait we must be strong; we must take heart. And then what? Then we wait for the Lord. Be vigilant, be watchful, be attentive, listening for his voice. During this global pandemic which has completely turned our lives upside down, and affected everyone in the world, we know that we must wait for the Lord. There is no alternative – we must wait on him and trust in him alone.

Day by day we want to hear his voice and go his way. The first three verses of Psalm 27 talk about being in a dangerous situation but trusting in the Lord for safety and protection. ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?’ Who indeed? If we really trust in God and rest in him, and if we are really followers of Jesus, then we can join the psalmist in these words of confidence. Yes, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Is he? We should pause and ask ourselves that kind of question from time to time. Just to check; just to confirm that yes, we really do still trust in the Lord. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Is he? Ask it and check. And if it remains true that yes, the Lord is my light and my salvation, and he is my stronghold, then whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid?

Yesterday we read this wonderful verse in Romans 8: 31 – ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ Who indeed? Verse 3 of this Psalm says a similar thing: ‘Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.’

May we come into this Advent season trusting in the Lord, and waiting for him and waiting on him. May we wait in peace, knowing that God is always with us and that he will never let us go. He if faithful and just, and remembers all his promises to us.

 

Prayer

Father, please help us as we wait on you to always trust and never fear. We pray for an end to the spread of covid-19, and we pray that in all things we will be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Amen.

Romans 8: 28 - 39

28 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. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

‘For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ 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.

Who Can be Against Us?

Today we come to the end of our readings in the first eight chapters of Romans, and you could say that we have reached a climax. Certainly there are more well-known and remembered sayings in these twelve verses than in any of the previous passages we have covered. And I would say that this whole section is definitely worth memorising as an encouragement!

Verse 28 tells us that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. It doesn’t mean that everything in life will have a happy ending, nor even that every cloud has a silver lining. Nevertheless, God is always on our side, and he always has our best interests at heart, and he is working for us. In this covid-19 pandemic there is good that comes out of it and good that will come out of it. God hasn’t left us or abandoned us. It is worth pausing and spending time thinking about how God has been blessing us individually, as a church and as a nation over the last nine months.

Verse 31 – ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ This is so encouraging when facing difficulties or opposition or persecution. It doesn’t matter who or what is against us, because God is always for us. Always.

Verse 35 – ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?’ No, none of those things shall separate us from the love of Christ, nor will a global pandemic. The love of Christ is strong and steadfast; he is unchanging and always faithful.

This whole passage reminds us that no matter what happens in our lives or in our community or in the world, God never lets us down. He is always on our side, he never lets us go, and he is perfectly and eternally faithful. Nothing can change that – nothing can separate us from God.

‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ (v. 37). No matter what comes against us, we can defeat it in Christ, because he is always with us, always strengthening and blessing us. Not that trouble doesn’t come – but in Christ we are on the victory side!

‘For I am convinced that neither lockdown nor face masks, neither firebreaks nor social distancing, neither the virus nor the vaccine, nor any covid-deniers, neither a persistent cough nor a high temperature, nor a loss or change in taste or smell, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are perfectly faithful. I thank you that there is nothing in my life or in the world that is strong enough to separate me from your love. Your love is eternal and unchanging, and I rejoice in it! Amen.

Romans 8: 18 - 27

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Groaning.

Decay is everywhere, and it can be quite depressing if you think about it too much. Look at the rotting leaves on the ground at this time of year. Build a wooden fence in the garden, and the wood will need some kind of preservative on it to extend its life. But not just once – it needs doing regularly, otherwise the wood will just rot away in the rain.

Way back on the 8^th Oct we looked at the consequences of sin in Genesis 3. Because Adam and Eve sinned, there was a curse on them, and on the snake and on the whole of creation. It is this curse that Paul is referring to in today’s reading – ‘creation was subjected to frustration’ (v. 20), ‘bondage to decay’ (v. 21), ‘the whole creation has been groaning’ (v. 22)

When Jesus returns, he will make all things new. We will be given new, resurrection bodies, and the whole of creation will be renewed – no longer groaning, no longer decaying, but made new like it was in the Garden of Eden before sin came into the world! It’s a world of perfection that we long for. The creation itself waits in eager expectation for that day, and so should we.

In the opening verse of our reading, Paul writes, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ (v. 18) That’s quite a statement, when you consider how much Paul suffered for his faith! People reading this might be going through various degrees of suffering. But without wishing to belittle your sufferings, or gloss over them, we can rejoice in this statement that Paul makes – that no matter how bad your sufferings, they are simply not worth comparing with the glory that will come to us in Christ!

And finally we have more ‘groaning’. Not only is the whole of creation groaning, but we are groaning inwardly as we wait for our resurrection bodies that we will receive when Christ returns. Maybe your body creaks, and, like me, you make that ‘old person’ noise when you stand up! Let’s look ahead eagerly to the day when Jesus will come again. And also, in verses 26 and 27, Paul talks about a different kind of groaning. This is groaning in prayer, when we cannot put our prayers into words. We want to call out to God but we simply can’t find the words to say. Maybe you have known this experience – the thing we want to pray about is beyond words for us. And when this happens, the Holy Spirit himself prays on our behalf. He ‘intercedes for us through wordless groans.’

 

Prayer

Lord, we join with all creation in looking forward to that glorious day of re-creation when Jesus come again. There are times when our heart longs for you in prayer, and we cannot find the words to cry out. Thank you that the Holy Spirit will always intercede for us in prayer. Amen.

Romans 8: 1 - 17

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ 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 because of his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 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.

No Condemnation.

In the last part of Romans 7, Paul described the difficult human situation of wanting to do good, but finding oneself doing evil instead. He pleaded – who will rescue me? And back came the answer, ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (Rom. 7: 25)

Now, chapter 8 begins with ‘Therefore’: meaning that even though we can find ourselves in a struggle with the sinful nature, God delivers us through Christ. So it follows that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.’ (v. 1 and 2)

Romans 8: 1 is a well-known and well-loved verse that is important when we find we are struggling to forgive ourselves for something in the past, or we are racked by shame and guilt. If you are in Christ, then there really is no condemnation for you! God does not condemn you, and you should not condemn yourself, nor accept the condemnation of others.

In John 8, a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, to see what he would do. The Teachers of the Law and Pharisees pointed out that the Law of Moses required that she should be stoned. And Jesus famously said, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Everyone went away, leaving just the woman and Jesus. And he said to her, ‘‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’

‘No one, sir,’ she said.

‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’

As believers, we are in a similar position to that woman. Jesus truly does not condemn us, and we need to believe that and rejoice in it! But also, he says to us all, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ And we must obey that command – Romans 8: 1 requires it, and the rest of this passage makes that point.

And in verses 14 to 17, Paul writes that as those led by the Spirit, we are now God’s children. We are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. That is amazing news, and something that we should take time to think about and to explore. God promises that we inherit the gift of new life if we will put our trust in Christ. We are no longer slaves – now we are sons of God! Remember in the parable of the Prodigal Son, how the son wanted to be taken on by his father as a servant? But the father welcomed him back as a son! And the same is true for our Heavenly Father who welcomes us back!

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that in Christ there is now no condemnation for me, and I have the wonderful gift of new life and of being your son. No longer a slave to sin, but now an heir of God! Amen.

Romans 7: 13 - 26

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Who Will Rescue Me?

Paul has been leading up to this explanation of the law and sin. The law is good, but through knowing it we are tempted to break it. At the end of Friday’s reading, Paul suggests that it seems that the more we know the law, the more we sin by breaking it! And now, in today’s reading, Paul paints a tragic picture, and one that we can all relate to. Even if this is not a permanent picture of what our lives are like, we have all known this experience at some time.

Paul says that what he really wants is to do good. He wants to do the right thing, and he wants to obey the law of God. But as an imperfect, sinful human being, he finds that sometimes the exact opposite occurs. He wants to do good, but fails to do so. He really doesn’t want to do bad or evil things, and yet finds that he is drawn to them and even does them. It might sound a bit strange – like a person who is controlled by some other ‘law’ inside them; but actually it is something we can all recognise in ourselves. We know the good things we should do – being kind and generous, showing love and helping others, spending time in prayer and reading the Bible and worshipping God. And yet, when it comes to it, we choose not to do those things. The temptation to do something else, and not to bother with the good things becomes overwhelming. Having started the day with good intentions and plans to do good things, by the end of the day we look back and realise that we hardly did any of it. Or maybe there is persistent sinful behaviour – selfishness and choosing wrong rather than right. We decide to definitely not do those things… and yet we still give in to temptation and do them.

I am not saying this is our story every day (if you are finding that it is, take time to talk it through with a Christian friend and pray together about it). But all of us can say, yes, at some time, that has been our story. And maybe we feel trapped in the wrong cycle – ‘who will rescue me?’ Paul asks that exact question in verse 24: ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?’ And then, in the first half of verse 25, this glorious answer comes: ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’

If we follow Jesus, and trust in him, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can live, every day in his will. Yes, we will sometimes slip, and when we do we can come to him in confession and repentance and know we will be forgiven. But the important thing is that in the Spirit, the cycle of sin is broken and we are no longer in chains, slaves to sin, but now we have true freedom! Again – get in touch with me or another Christian friend if you feel this is not your experience at the moment.

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that I am no longer in chains. You have rescued me from slavery to sin. Thank you that the answer to our problem is in verse 25: ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ Amen.

Romans 7: 1 - 12

1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

Alive in Christ, Bearing Fruit for God.

In Romans 7 we come to another of Paul’s arguments of logic concerning the law. When we became Christians, we died to the law, and we came alive in Christ. The illustration that Paul uses concerning marriage has troubled some people – and it is important to not look into it too deeply, nor use it as an allegory, but it doesn’t work that way. The important point is that a death took place, and that changed everything. Jesus, the Son of God, came to live for us, teaching us the truths of how we should live for God, and he died for us. Jesus died on the cross – the perfect man who had never sinned died a criminal’s death. And in doing so, he took our place and he paid for our sins. He averted the wrath of God from us and thereby restored our relationship with him. And when we trust in Jesus, our old sinful way of life is also put to death – the illustration has been used before that we died to sin. Or, to put it another way, the old sinful life was put to death by being nailed to the cross with Jesus.

And following that death, we can now live! We are brought into freedom – mainly freedom from sin and freedom from death. But was also might say freedom from the law, which is what Paul writes about here. Now, when we say we are free from the law, it doesn’t mean we are free from having to keep the law. The Ten Commandments still apply to us as much now as ever. But the difference is that under the old covenant, people were required to live under the law in order to be righteous before God. Now, in Christ, we have his righteousness, which has nothing to do with our keeping of the law. Rather, the righteousness of Christ that we have comes through faith in him, and through his death on the cross. And we now obey the law of God because we are saved – not the other way around.

‘So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.’ (v.4). What kind of fruit are you and I bearing for God? Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit, which is one kind of fruit. Jesus also talked about being fruitful in a different way in the parable of the sower. Are you full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Are you seeing fruit for the kingdom in people who are getting to meet Jesus through you? Are people seeing the fruit of good works in your life as you live for Christ and follow him?

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that through the death of Jesus, I can know life. I thank you that my old sinful life is put to death, and I am risen to new life in you. Please fill me with your Spirit, and help me to bear fruit for you. May I have opportunities to live for you in my interactions with other people, and may I see those opportunities and take them! Amen.

Romans 6: 15 - 23

15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Choose Your Master.

In today’s reading, Paul is really continuing the point that he made in the opening verses of the chapter, which we looked at yesterday. Again, in verse 15, he asks the question of whether we now have an ‘excuse’ to sin. But whereas in verse 1 the logic of such a position was that ‘the more we sin, the more grace we receive’, this time the premise is that we are no longer under the Law of Moses, but under grace – so if we are not under the law, we can easily break the law! And once again, Paul explains why that is a completely incorrect position to reach. ‘By no means!’ he says.

In this section, Paul is expanding on the idea of being ‘slaves’ – either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness. Verses 17 and 18: ‘But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.’

Although Paul shows this as a choice between two masters, they are very different. Slaves to sin are in servitude – they can’t help but obey the evil desires of sin. They get deeper and deeper into ‘impurity and ever-increasing wickedness’ (v. 19). Slaves to sin feel shame; they are sentenced to hard labour and they die in service – three times Paul says that being a slave sin leads to death (verses 16, 21 and 23).

By comparison, this is what it is like to be a slave of God, or of righteousness: We are free from the control of the old slave master (v. 18)! As we have seen recently in Gal. 5: 1, ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.’ We are now free to live a holy life, and see our characters transformed (verses 18 and 19). We reap great benefits and fruit in our lives. As slaves of God we have very generous treatment – not wages, but a free gift of eternal life in Christ (v. 23). And being slaves of God means we no longer face death from being slaves of sin, but now receive life – it is life to the full, and it is eternal life. So being a ‘slave’ of God is nothing like our idea of slavery – rather, it is being children of God!

Verse 23 is often quoted in an evangelistic sense: ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ It certainly makes clear the big difference between these two masters. If you choose sin, then you are choosing death. But if you choose God, then you are choosing life!

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the amazing gift of life! I thank you that through Christ I have been freed from slavery to sin and death. Lord, I willingly change my allegiance and come into your service – no longer bound or chained in slavery, but now truly free. Amen.

Romans 6: 1 - 14

1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? ² By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³ Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

⁵ For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶ For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – ⁷ because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.

⁸ Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹ For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰ The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

¹¹ In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. ¹² Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. ¹³ Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ!

At the end of yesterday’s reading, in Rom. 5: 20, Paul wrote that the Law caused sin to increase, which in turn caused God’s grace to increase. It might sound a strange argument to our ears, but he is saying that once the Law of Moses was introduced, there was then a law for people to break, and thereby be guilty of sin! And because God forgives sin by his grace, if there is more sin, then there is more grace!

So in verse 1 of today’s reading, Paul turns things around, and re-visits a question that came up in Rom. 3: 8. ‘The more I sin, the more God forgives me, and the more grace I receive. So I should sin more!’ This is a serious case of twisting the truth, and Paul objects greatly to it. I wonder whether anyone actually said this, or whether Paul’s logical mind had realised that this was a potential mis-reading of what he had just been saying, and therefore feels the need to address it. Clearly it is nonsense to suggest that we should sin more in order to receive more grace from God.

So, for the rest of this passage, Paul is explaining why, as Christians, we should resist sin. When we put our trust in Jesus and came to him as our Saviour, choosing to follow him, we were forgiven for our sins. It was like our old sinful nature had been put to death, nailed to the cross with Jesus. It was buried, and just as Jesus rose from the grave, so we have risen to a new life. And as Christian people today we should live in that new life – a life in which our aim is to go Jesus’ way, following his teaching and being obedient to him. And although, as humans, the sinful nature is still within us, we should live recognising that it has been put to death, and no longer has any control over us. Verses 6 and 7 make the point clearly: ‘For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.’

We are free from sin – and as we live for Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, we should remember that. Sadly, there are people who have never met Jesus, who are slaves to sin and addiction. And sadder still, there are some who have met Jesus, and who slip back into being slaves to sin and addiction again. Paul writes that ‘we should no longer be slaves to sin’ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, those chains of slavery can be broken. If you are struggling in this way, please seek help and prayer for your situation. I would willingly spend time with you and help you to come to Christ to be set free!

 

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, as your follower I love you and want to always go your way. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit and strengthen me to choose your way, which is the way of life, rather than the way of my old sinful nature, which is the way of death. Amen.

Romans 5: 12 - 21

12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned –

¹³ To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. ¹⁴ Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.

¹⁵ But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! ¹⁶ Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: the judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. ¹⁷ For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

²⁰ The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Eternal Life Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Like yesterday, another ‘therefore’ begins today’s reading. Paul has been talking about how we are all sinners, and in the first part of chapter 5 he wrote about how we are justified through the blood of Christ, and saved from the wrath of God. Today’s ‘therefore’ is to link the sin that he has been talking about (and how it came about) and the salvation we have though one man, Jesus Christ.

In this passage Paul does something that we occasionally see in his letters – he interrupts himself to explain a bit more about the point he is about to make. Verses 13 to 17 are really all in parentheses. Verse 12 begins with an unfinished ‘therefore…’ and his argument continues in verse 18.

Verses 13 to 17 are about the fact that sin entered the world through one man – Adam. And Paul is talking about how it was that people were sinners, even before there was the Law of Moses to break. This is another one of those things that made sense to Paul and his original readers, but is a bit outside our cultural understanding. In fact Paul is speaking from his Pharisee background here. The Pharisees viewed ‘sin’ as what happens when you break the commandments and laws of the Torah. You and I tend not to use that definition of ‘sin’ because we have been brought up with the Ten Commandments and their interpretation in the Sermon on the Mount. But Paul is explaining that even though there was no Law for people to break between the time of Adam and Moses, death still reigned (v. 14).

Adam was disobedient to God, and through his disobedience he brought sin into the world. Jesus, on the other hand, was obedient to God, and through his obedience he brought justification, life and righteousness into the world! (v. 18 - 19) Paul is arguing that just as the actions of one man brought death, so the actions of another man reversed it and brought life!

Verse 21 says, ‘Just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ That verse reminds us of where we have come from and where we are now. Before we knew Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we were caught in sin and death. But now, through Jesus, we have received the grace of God. And we have received his righteousness and the wonderful gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord!

We shouldn’t get so caught up with some of the difficult arguments that Paul uses in Romans that we forget the central message, which is that God loves us so much and he puts that love into action (grace) by saving us from sin and death, and giving us the gift of life!

 

Prayer

Father God, we praise you for rescuing us from sin and death. Thank you that when Jesus came he reversed the sin of Adam, and brought us the gift of life! Help us know it, believe it and share it! Amen.

Romans 5: 1 - 11

1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Justified Through Faith.

‘Therefore…’ is one of Paul’s favourite words in his letters. He sets out an argument, and having established his premise, he now says, ‘having proved all that, this is what follows!’ The first four chapters of Romans have been explaining the seriousness of sin and that we are all sinners – Jews and Gentiles alike. But we can be saved and forgiven for our sins by the grace of God, received through faith. It’s not about our works – rather, like Abraham believed, and it was ‘credited to him as righteousness’, so we also receive God’s righteousness through believing. Therefore… (v. 1), having been justified through faith, we now have peace with God, through Christ!

How do you feel about suffering? It is not anyone’s first choice in normal life, but those who suffer for their faith don’t have a choice. And if it comes, we glory in our sufferings, difficult though it is to imagine. And ‘suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope,’ (v. 3 - 4). At this time we need hope more than ever. I pray that our sufferings will not be severe, but that through it all we will develop perseverance, character and hope.

Who did Christ die for? The ungodly (v. 6). When did he die? At just the right time, when we were still powerless. Verse 8 is a well-known and well-loved verse that sums this up: ‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ He didn’t wait for us to get everything together, all sorted, all our behaviour and attitudes correct before he died for us. No, he died for sinners, when we were still sinners! Sometimes churches expect people to change first before they meet Jesus – if they do that they are getting it completely the wrong way round!

Verse 9 reminds us of the wrath of God (a topic too often forgotten or glossed over). Paul says that we have been justified by the blood of Christ – this means we have been declared innocent because of Jesus death on the cross. And because of that we are also saved from God’s wrath through Jesus. God has no punishment waiting for us because of our sins – we are forgiven, cleansed, made right and rescued from the consequences of our sin. Jesus has paid the price for our sins, averting the wrath of God from us. Hallelujah!

Romans 5 is like what happens when you climb a difficult hill and reach the brow where suddenly you can see a magnificent view stretched out ahead of you. Chapters 1 to 4 were about sin, and they were quite hard work. But now we get to chapter 5, we understand that the climb was worth it!

 

Prayer

Lord Jesus, I thank you that while I was still a sinner, you died for me! And I thank you that through your death and the shedding of your blood I am justified and reconciled to God! Help me live like I believe it, and help me to share this Good News with other people. Amen.

Romans 4: 13 - 25

13 It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴ For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵ because the law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

¹⁶ Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring – not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. ¹⁷ As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed – the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.

¹⁸ Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ ¹⁹ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. ²⁰ Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, ²¹ being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. ²² This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness.’ ²³ The words ‘it was credited to him’ were written not for him alone, ²⁴ but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.

Patience and Trust in God’s Promises.

In Genesis 15, Abram was given an amazing promise – and I commented on it yesterday. God promised him that his offspring would be as uncountable as the stars in the sky. But at the time when God made this promise Abram and Sarai had no children, and they were getting on in age. They were in their seventies, and they were regarded as childless and too old for that to change. But God had made a promise, and they believed him. Abram believed, and because of his belief, God ‘credited it to him as righteousness.’

They received the promise, and then they waited for it to be fulfilled. And they waited. And they waited. At the beginning of Genesis 15, Abram was already saying to God that the person who would inherit his estate would be his servant, Eliezer of Damascus. But God corrected him and assured him that his heir would come from his own body. So Abram and Sarai waited.

As we know, as time went on, they began to doubt and together they took things into their own hands, and Abram slept with Sarai’s maidservant, Hagar, and she gave birth to Abram’s first son, Ishmael. But that wasn’t God’s plan, and Ishmael was not the fulfilment of the promise.

Finally, in Genesis 21, Isaac was born. Abram and Sarai were now called Abraham and Sarah, and Sarah was in her nineties, and Abraham was one hundred! Paul writes, ‘Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him.’ (v. 18)

How are we at believing the promises of God? Do we struggle with the fact that God’s timing, although perfect, is often not the same as our timing? God had promised Abraham that he would become the father of many nations, and it took over twenty years for him to see the fulfilment of that promise, by which time it was, humanly speaking, impossible. Do you sometimes find your faith stretched? Are there things in your life, or in the church or your family where you believe God has promised something, but it was a very long time ago and you are still waiting? How strong is your faith to believe the promises of God? In verses 20 and 21, Paul writes this about Abraham: ‘Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.’ In this regard, Abraham is a great example to all of us.

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that Abraham held on to your promise. His faith kept him going for many years. Please help me to be patient, to be trusting, and always to put my faith in you and in your Word. Lord, we thank you for answered prayers concerning the development of a covid-19 vaccine, and we ask that you will give us patience and trust in you, to see an end to the pandemic. Amen.

Romans 4: 1 - 12

1 What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, discovered in this matter? ² If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about – but not before God. ³ What does Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’

⁴ Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation. ⁵ However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. ⁶ David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the one to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:

⁷ ‘Blessed are those
    whose transgressions are forgiven,
    whose sins are covered.
⁸ Blessed is the one
    whose sin the Lord will never count against them.’

⁹ Is this blessedness only for the circumcised, or also for the uncircumcised? We have been saying that Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness. ¹⁰ Under what circumstances was it credited? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? It was not after, but before! ¹¹ And he received circumcision as a sign, a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. So then, he is the father of all who believe but have not been circumcised, in order that righteousness might be credited to them. ¹² And he is then also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also follow in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Credited to Him as Righteousness.

In Genesis 15 God made a covenant with Abram (as he was then called). God promised Abram that he would be the father of a great nation. God told him to try and count the stars – and that his offspring would uncountable, like the stars in the sky. And in verse 6 of that chapter it says, ‘Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.’ (Not an easy verse to read out loud!).

It is this verse in Genesis 15 that Paul is referring to here in our reading in Romans 4: 3. He is using it to illustrate the point that we saw in yesterday’s reading, namely that the righteousness of God is a gift to us through faith rather than through works. Why did the Lord credit Abram with righteousness? Because he believed God. It wasn’t because he had been circumcised (he hadn’t yet – that Jewish regulation had not yet been given), nor that he obeyed the Law of Moses (which was given to the people 430 years later!)

To further reinforce his point, Paul quotes the words of David from Psalm 32:  ‘Blessed are those whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.’

When Jesus died on the cross he carried all the sin and selfishness of all people. He bridged the gap between God and mankind. God is perfect and holy and completely without sin; whereas human beings are flawed, imperfect, and sinners. Jesus was the bridge because he was the Son of God – and more than that he was God the Son. That means he is God. We believe in the Trinity, which means that God is One, existing in three co-equal persons in perfect community: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So when Jesus came to earth he was God and Man – but he wasn’t ‘half and half’, like a ‘demi-god’ in Greek mythology. No, Jesus was fully God and fully man – difficult though it is for us to fully grasp how that worked. But because Jesus was the perfect, sinless, God / man, only he could die to take away the sins of mankind. Only Jesus could make that bridge between the perfection of God and the imperfection of humankind. If you and I are followers of Jesus – we have accepted his gift of forgiveness on the cross and invited him to be our Saviour, then our transgressions are forgiven, and our sins are covered by the blood of Jesus. Thus, according to David in Psalm 32, and quoted here in Romans 4: 7, we are truly blessed! And further, in verse 8, ‘Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.’ Yes, the Lord will never count my sin against me because Jesus has taken my sin upon himself. When God looks at me, he does not see my imperfection and sin – rather he sees the perfection and glory of Jesus! And the same is true for you. No wonder we are called ‘blessed’!

 

Prayer

Lord, we thank you that we don’t have to earn your forgiveness or your righteousness. It would be impossible anyway, even if we tried! We praise you that we are blessed with forgivness and salvation in Christ by your grace alone, through faith. Amen.

Romans 3: 21 - 31

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. ²² This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood – to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished ²⁶  – he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

²⁷ Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the ‘law’ that requires faith. ²⁸ For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. ²⁹ Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰ since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹ Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

Justified Freely by His Grace.

“But now…” So many wonderful passages in the Bible begin this way. It is a particular favourite of Paul in his letters, in the style of the arguments he makes. Another version is , ‘But God…” which often follows a description of how we have turned away from him.

Thus far, Paul has mainly been explaining to his readers how serious sin is, and how we are all guilty of sin – Jews and Gentiles alike. Following Jewish regulations such as circumcision and the Law of Moses does not save people, is what Paul has been saying.

But now… through Christ, something wonderful has happened! Quite apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been made known. It’s not the righteousness of Jewish traditions – rather, it is the righteousness ‘given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.’ And notice that the righteousness in Christ is given to all who believe: ‘There is no difference between Jew and Gentile’. Paul has been working up to this conclusion of his argument – that all are sinners and we are not saved through being a Jew; rather we are saved through Christ alone.

Verses 23 and 24 are an oft-quoted summary of the Gospel: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.” Firstly, all have sinned. With the exception of Jesus himself there are no exceptions. No-one can honestly claim to be without sin. Every single one of us has at some point chosen the path of disobedience to God, choosing to live according to selfish desires instead of living for God and other people. In doing so, we fall short of the glory of God, which is perfect. Only a completely perfect person could reach the glory of God on their own – and there has only ever been one of those, namely Jesus himself. However, although all have sinned, all of us can also be justified (declared right with God and free from the stain of sin). And we are freely justified – there is no cost to ourselves! And how does this happen? By his grace (God’s love in action, by which he gives us good things that we have not earned or deserved), through the redemption than came by Christ Jesus. Redemption means ‘to buy back’. Jesus bought us back from the reign of sin and death in our lives – and he did so by paying the ultimate price when he died on the cross.

Paul has been building up to this moment over nearly three chapters of Romans. He spent a long time reminding us of the seriousness of sin, and today we have seen the wonderful way in which God deals with that sin!

 

Prayer

Lord, I know I am a sinner, but I rejoice that I am a forgiven sinner. I thank you that I am justified freely by your grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. I rejoice in your love! Amen.