been a couple..

some of you are thinking..."man. there was a week or so where joe made 3 or 5 posts a day. now it has been 2 days and nothing". for those in that boat, i'm back.
others of you were thinking "man, it's nice not to have a million different posts from joe in my inbox" For those in that boat, i'm with ya.

I'm going to try and be a littler more deliberate in my posting. I'm going to try to stay myself to three a day. Hopefully, you'll find it easier to keep up with me.

So, without further ado...

Tonight's lesson was on Romans 2:17-end. It was on the idea of living by the law and how that translates now to those of us in the church who grew up under the 'law' of the church. This is not an exact translation of what was occuring in the arguement by Paul, but it is a good general way to think of it.
We talked about the idea of circumcision and why it was such a huge problem for the 1st century church. Then, we talked about some aspects of circumcision and how they relate to salvation.

Specifically, that circumcision is not something you can do to yourself. It must be performed by someone on you. You can't take the tool and clip your own heart, you'd probably muck it up and die. So, instead, God the Father takes care of it. He does it through the sacrifice of His Son. He extends it in His sovereign grace.

So, we must live as those who have been circumcized of the heart. We must be truly changed before anything we do that follows the 'law' of the church will matter.

After I talked about that for 20 minutes, one of the guys popped the question in about "Does God know everyone who will be saved?"...my answer "yes." Simple. Concise. Never enough.

Next question "Well, then why doesn't God save everyone?" Proceed to Romans 9. Explanation: because God is Sovereign and has mercy on whom He will have mercy.
"But why?". Proceed to next of Romans 9.
Because God wants to make Himself fully known both in power and might and in grace and love. He is all those things and in order for Him to be perfectly glorified He must display them.
Another reason is so that we, who are saved, will understand the abounding joy that comes from knowing God.

I concluded by going back to Romans 1 where all are guilty not because they are not chosen by God, but because they are guilty of not giving Him glory. Of sin. Of attempting to dethrone God. Therefore, man is responsible to believe and is justly condemned if he does not.

And there you have it, week three of Romans.

-joe