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Of Branches and Remnants
Today we're going to be summarizing a lot - kind of getting to the point of Romans 9-11.  Here's a quick summary of 9-11 that a preaching team I was on a few years ago did:

Chapter 9
God has not gone back on His promises (v.6).  He has sovereignly chosen individuals from both the Jews and Gentiles apart from their works and heritage.

Chapter 10
Israel was so busy trying to gain their own righteousness through the law that they missed God’s provision in Jesus Christ.  The have no excuse, because the message was given to them.

Chapter 11
Gentiles have no room to boast.  God chooses whom He will, not based on merit.  The Jews still have a major role in God’s future plans.

Also, here's another chart to help us out:

Basically, Paul is still trying to answer the question, "Has God broken His promise by rejecting His chosen people?"  I mean, yes - they DID reject the Messiah, but God still made a promise, right?  Paul draws the distinction between "Physical Israel" and "Spiritual Israel".  Physical Israel are those that are actually Jewish, circumcised, etc., while Spiritual Israel are those that actually believe and are therefore TRULY the children of Abraham (chapter 4).  But there is an overlap (top of the chart) - there are those of Physical Israel that truly believe and truly accept the Messiah.  Paul calls them a "remnant" - members of Spiritual Israel that are also members of Physical Israel.  Remnant or not, Paul tell us that God HAS NOT broken his promises to redeem Israel because He truly will redeem all members of the true SPIRITUAL Israel, children of Abraham because they show the faith of Abraham (again, chapter 4).  Physical Israel has no excuse - the had the message and God's word, but rejected it.

That brings us to today:  Paul basically tells the Gentiles not to get too proud that they are included, because it is not on their own merit.  Because Israel rejected God, they were "pruned" branches and the Gentiles were "grafted in".  That just means that they, a foreign branch, were brought into the "plant" by an artificial grafting process.  Paul reasons to us (Gentiles) that if we, the foreigners, can be brought in, how much easier could those original branches be brought back in?  Don't get too proud about status, lest the Gentiles make the same mistake the Jews did.

Whew - it's pretty complicated with a lot of imagery, but I hope the quick summary helps.  Let me know if you have any questions or comments and I'll try to get to them when I'm able.

FYI - I won't be able to post tomorrow, so Monday's post is early.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

An Ironic Missions Verse
Today's reading is bit ironic because it's often used in missions presentations:

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” "

That's all fine and dandy, but then the next verse says this:

"But they have not all obeyed the gospel."

The top part is really true, but let's not totally take it out of context just because it's good to motivate people for missions - we need to understand what it's saying in context:  that Israel DID have it preached to them, but rejected it.  In the broad span of chapters 9-11, we're dealing with how Israel rejected the Gospel and what that means for us now as Gentiles.  Let's not forget that as we keep reading.

Questions?  Comments?

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

God's Sovereignty
Today's passage is a very controversial one - it is a point of contention for a lot of people.  Sadly, I don't have time for a very lengthy post today, so hopefully we can backtrack a bit in chapters 10-11 to summarize and tie things together.

Today I'm going to borrow a post from Reclaiming the Mind Ministries to get you thinking about the major controversial topic.  The big verse is 18:  "So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills."  So, just how far does God's sovereignty go?  Here's the post:


"Where do you stand on God’s sovereignty?

1. Meticulous sovereignty: God is the instrumental cause behind every action and reaction there has ever been. For this view, in order for God to be truly sovereign, he must be the ultimate and instrumental cause for everything, including sin.

2. Providential sovereignty : God is bringing about his will in everything (Eph 1:11). However,  his will is not the instrumental cause of all that happens. God’s will plays a providential role in “causing” all things, using secondary causes as instruments. What God wills is not always what he would want in a perfect world, but all he has is sin to work with. Therefore, in this sense, even evil is the will of God.

3. Providential oversight : Here God’s sovereignty is expressed in active oversight. He has a general plan, but is not married to the details. God can and often does intervene in the affairs of humanity to bring about his purpose. In this case he never “wills” evil; he only uses it.

4. Influential oversight : Here God limits his own sovereignty. God could control things, but to preserve human freedom, he will not intervene in the affairs of men to the degree that human freedom is effected. He is hopeful that his influence will be persuasive to change a person’s heart or to guide them to his will. Here God never wills evil, but only allows it."

So, NT in a year-ers, what do you think?  And I don't just mean which one do you like best.  Which view do you think the Bible teaches and why?  I know it's a hard question, but give it a shot.

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Nothing Can Separate
Wow.  I've loved today's passage since the first day I came to know Jesus.  There are some things that we could talk about in this passage, but today I'm not going to.  I don't want to focus on a minor point and miss the big picture.  Read it again.  NOTHING can separate us.

What do you all think?  Anything in this passage that particularly sticks out to you?  Any impressions from it?  I hope you all love it as much as I do.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

What "Good" Is
"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."  Romans 8:28-30

A lot in today's passage again.  In case you haven't noticed, the NT letters are crammed full of content, particularly Romans.  Today I'm going to repeat some that both Rachel and I talk about often:  what the "good" of Romans 8:28 is.  Christians like Romans 8:28, especially when times are tough:

"Lost your job? Don't worry - all things work together for good for those who love God.  You'll get a new, better one." Etc. etc.

The problem with this is that the Bible doesn't promise that things will get better for us in this life.  If anything, it promises that things will be worse for those that believe in Jesus.  The persecuted Jesus - they will persecute you.  All those that seek to live godly in Jesus will be persecuted, etc.  The good promised in this verse is not possessions or money or health.

So what is the good? "For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son."  The good is being made more like Jesus.  Lost your job?  I don't know if you'll get a new one.  But if you seek Jesus and cling to God, you will be made more like Him.  And ultimately, you will be made complete in Him when He returns again - the event which all creation is waiting for!

I love Romans 8.  So much good stuff.  Any questions or comments on any of it?

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Not a Slave to Sin
"This passage is one of the most controversial in all of Romans. Since early in the history of the church scholars and laypeople alike have debated just what experience Paul refers to. The debate is an important one, for it influences our understanding and practice of the Christian life." [1]

So, what's the controversy about?  It basically revolves around the "I" that Paul uses in this passage.  What kind of person is Paul referring to?  Many Christians identify very closely with the picture Paul paints of frustration in this passage, but is he speaking of the Christian life?  There are several views:

1.  Paul is referring to a normal, mature Christian experience.
2. Paul is referring to his lives under the law as a Jew.
3. Paul is describing the experience of an immature Christian.

Honestly, I could write A LOT on this topic because I think it's incredibly important, but unfortunately this is not the medium to do so.  I wholeheartedly take the second view.  Thankfully, Doug Moo agrees with me and does a great job of explaining why:

"What ultimately is decisive for me is the fact that Paul’s description of the person in 7:13–25 is contradictory to his description of the Christian in chapters 6 and 8. Note the following contrasts:

“I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin” (7:14)
  “you have been set free from sin” (6:18, 22; cf. 6:2, 6, 14)

“making me a prisoner of the law of sin” (7:23)
  “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death” (8:2)" [2]

Of course there are issues to deal with when taking this view (like Paul's use of "I am" rather than "I was"), but taking Romans as a whole I think this is the only way we can rightly understand this passage.  Particularly, we need to take into account what we talked about yesterday and how Paul has JUST WRITTEN about how we died to the Law and to sin.

So if Paul is describing life under the Law, why do so many Christians feel the same way?  Moo summarizes life under the Law like this:

"While delighting in the law of God and seeking earnestly to obey it, Jews were unable to do so. They were held captive like prisoners under the power of sin (7:14, 23). Only Jesus Christ, Paul recognizes, can save Jews from the spiritual death that holds sway over them (7:24b–25a). But until they come to that realization, they will remain captives to the “law of sin” (7:25b)." [3]

That is most certainly NOT the problem of a Christian who has died to the Law - they are no longer captive to sin.  But I think that the reason a lot of Christians still feel this way is that they still act as though they are slaves to the Law and to sin.  We're a country of list-makers and achievers.  I think a lot of Christians basically think "Grace saves me. I get that.  But then I have to be the best Christian possible to make God and others happy."  We set our goals and self-improve and kill ourselves doing it.  We may the be under "the Law", but most of us are under our own personal law of who we want to be, and our perpetual falling short is what makes us feel what Paul is describing here. 

Taking the first view, other than minimizing the work of the Spirit and our newness of life, is just depressing.  We have the victory of Jesus on our side and we are no longer condemned.  We need not feel this way as mature Christians.

The third view is the most destructive, and a view I think most Christians end up falling into.  I leads to this type of thinking:

"Therefore, according to this last view, chapters 7–8 together carry a hidden command: The believer must “get out of Romans 7 and into Romans 8.” Advocates of the first view would argue that the believer is always in both Romans 7 and Romans 8. According to the second view, it is God in Christ who offers to transfer the Jew from Romans 7 into Romans 8." [4] (emphasis mine)

Let's all agree here:  we can never in our own power get from Romans 7 to Romans 8.  It's easy to say, but hard to put into practice.  We must let GRACE change us.  Grace is what freed us from the Law and from sin - it is what will continue to change us.  The Christian life isn't about "being the best you can be", but about honoring God in our thoughts and actions out of gratitude and thankfulness, understanding (as we talked about in John 15) that apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.  Stop making your own law.  Stop frustrating yourself and seek grace.  Jesus will change you.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Married to the Law
Because this is Romans, there is far more in our readings every day than I can hope to address.  Today's reading is no different - chapter 6 is a very rich chapter, so take some time again to read it slowly and carefully.  The  major point:  through faith in Christ we have died to sin.  We are no longer slaves to sin (owned and controlled by it), but are rather slaves to Jesus and righteousness (again, owned and controlled). Remember this, because we'll come back to it at the end of chapter 7.  That being said, I want to quickly deal with an easily misunderstood illustration at the beginning of chapter 7:

"Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? 2 For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. 3 Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
4 Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."

Again I have a nifty diagram to help explain.

As I said, it can be easy to misunderstand this illustration.  Many who read this think that it is saying that the Law has died.  After all, we don't have to follow it anymore, do we?  While that is true, the CANNOT die.  It is the eternal word of God and will never pass away.  So if the Law can't die, it means that WE must died.  We die in order to be released to our obligation to the Law.  When we are dead it no longer as any authority over us.  We are then raised BY Christ to life WITH Christ.  Our husband (the Law) didn't die -we died in order that we might have a NEW husband, Jesus. This is why we CANNOT simply just be the "new and improved" version of our former selves.  If we are simply "better", we are still married to the Law.  We MUST be new creations or we still stand condemned under the Law.  This is the miracle that occurs in our salvation:  that we die and are raised as new creations.  That is why the symbolism of baptism is so important:  it's more than just a symbol of being clean or something weird that we do - we were dead and buried with Christ and are raised to life again in a miraculous act of grace.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Grace Abounded All the More
There's a lot that we could talk about it today's chapter, so I'm trying to choose wisely.  First of all, understand that the "Adam-Jesus" parallel is REALLY important to understanding what Paul is writing here, and also to really understanding the story of the whole Bible.  I don't think I can really explain it much clearer than Paul already does, so just make sure that you read it slow and take the time to understand what he's saying in that section.

I want to provide you with a little help in the last section of the reading.  Carefully look through the diagram below and I'll try my best to explain it underneath.

Basically, mankind begins in what is usually called in theological terms "unconfirmed holiness" or, as in the diagram, "creaturely holiness".  This means that God creates humankind without sin, they don't yet have sin, but have the ability to do so.  The passage walks us down through the "levels" (not a great word, but I can't think of a better one) of how sin abounds.  Adam sins, falling from creaturely holiness.  Ungodliness reigns after, men forsaking the following of God, but without the specifics of the law condemning them. The Law comes, making the situation even worse because men now knowingly and blatantly break the commands of God.  The situation is dire.  "But where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (v. 20).  Jesus is much more than just the second Adam.  The free gift is not like the trespass - it does much more! 

The gift of the righteousness of Jesus does more than zero out the score.  We're not back at creaturely holiness - we've been given the very righteousness of Jesus!  This, and this only, allow us to enter into the gates of God's city.  It is MUCH MORE.  Not only has that been gifted to us, but because we can enter God's Kingdom, we await the final day when we will be given CONFIRMED holiness.  Sin will be done away with.  We won't be able to sin any more.  I don't know about you, but sounds great.

Much, much greater than the trespass.

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

Faith is Not a Work
In today's passage, Paul continues to specifically address Jews and the connection between Jewish belief and Christianity.  If you're going to do that, you MUST bring Abraham into the picture - the Father of the Jewish faith.  That is exactly what Paul does.

Circumcision was given to Abraham as a sign of God's covenant with Abraham, and was the premier sign of being a Jew - it comes up often in in Acts and the letters as a point of contention surrounding Jews, Gentiles and the Gospels.  Circumcision seemed inextricably bound up with the Jewish (Abrahamic Covenant) with God, so that is what Paul deals with here.  Citing the Old Testament (Genesis 15:6), Paul pinpoints Abraham's "salvation moment", when He believes the promise of God and the Bible says "it was credited to Him as righteousness".  Why is this moment in time important?  Because it happens BEFORE Abraham is circumcised.  Abraham's salvation, Paul argues, does not come through his circumcision, but through his FAITH.  The circumcision was merely a sign of his faith, and a sign that is not necessary now that all nations may receive the promise and righteousness of God.

The second, intertwined line of argument has to do with the nature of faith and justification.  The big question that seems to emerge from what Paul has been writing is a bit complicated.  "Abraham believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness" can be understood in more than one way.  It COULD mean that although circumcision and other works cannot ever earn salvation, the one work that does access salvation is the act of believing - faith.  So, is faith the one work we can do that earns salvation?  I hope that you know the answer is no.  Here's why:

Verse 4: "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly..."  Faith is categorized here as "not work".  So, what is faith then?  I'm not sure there's a totally fitting analogy for it, but it's kind of like faith is the glue that sticks us to the promise of God.  What I mean is this:  the important part is not our faith, but God's promise.  We can have faith enough to move a mountain, but if it's placed in the wrong thing, it is totally useless.  What makes faith effective in any way is the promise of God.  ALL of the power lies in that - the faith is merely the means by which it is accessed. 

Click here to read today's passage on Bible Gateway.

The Point of the Whole Bible
Martin Luther said of today's passage (specifically vv. 21-26) that it is “the chief point, and the very central place of the Epistle, and of the whole Bible.” [1] Do yourself a favor and read the passage again, slowly.  Understand it well.

I want to focus in on v. 25, on the world "propitiation" (ESV).  The word in the Greek here ("hilasterion").  Again, Doug Moo has a helpful explanation of the significance of this word:

"...hilasterion refers to what NIV calls the “atonement cover” (what used to be called the “mercy seat”)—the cover of the ark where sacrificial blood was sprinkled as a means of propitiating God’s wrath. This atonement cover is prominent in Leviticus 16, where the Day of Atonement ritual is described. The “atonement cover,” therefore, came to represent for the Jews the place where, or the means by which, God took care of his people’s sin problem." [2]