romans 6

To borrow a term from Watchman Nee, we must 'reckon' our sin dead in order to begin living the 'normal Christian life.'

The first 14 verses of Romans 6 talk about this very idea. One of the greatest gifts given in salvation is the freedom from sin. It is no longer alive, it is dead. It has been crucified with Christ. We are not bound to it. To realize this truth frees us from guilt. It frees us from repetitive sin. It frees us from a legalist form of Christianity.

The second part of Chapter 6 is equally awesome. Not only are we free from sin...we are free to righteousness. That is our great duty and gift. That even though we are free from the law we are now bound in our heart to Christ. We are now to live a righteous life because we are bound to do so.

Let us all reckon these to be true and live truly God-glorifying lives in Christ Jesus.

-joe

romans 5

On Sunday night we discussed Romans 5 at Senior High youth. It was a good discussion with lots of questions asked and most of them answered.

Chapter 5 begins to unpack more fully the idea that we are sinners by virtue of being human, while the first few chapters focus on individual sins as the guilty vice which damns us, this chapter focuses on the absoluteness of the fall and reinforces the idea that we are born evil. Psalm 51:5 is the greatest of examples. "In sin did my mother conceive me."

Truly this puts a great urgency on the Gospel being told to the countless millions who don't know Christ. A great burden is placed on anyone who understands that all people who have ever been born, just by being conceived (which should convince all Christians not to support abortion..God thinks of us as humans at the point of conception (sperm hitting the egg) and not at a later point).

The great truth and joy comes only in Christ, the second Adam, who redeems us and gives us a new birth. Again, we are counted righteous in an instant and continue in that righteousness forever, having been born of the Spirit and washed in Jesus blood. The Gospel comes no sweeter than this.

-joe

romans 4

It has been a crazy week. We are having a completely new Bible school concept at church. It is for the entire family, not just the kids. It seems to be doing quite well.

Sunday, we went over the end of Romans 3 and most of Romans 4. What a great couple of paragraphs. Paul stresses the absolute gift of salvation. That grace is bestowed on the believing aside from anything that they have done or will do. It is given in love from God to justify us while we are sinners.

A great confidence should well up when we hear this. This means that any of us can be saved. Any of us can be brought up out of the bondage of this world. And any of us who do believe will not be counted worthless once we have been gifted with grace. We will remain now matter our actions.

I'm sure some will be grumbling at this point. Paul will answer the grumblings in couple of chapters...how this grace given does not mean we can continue sinning. Indeed, we should be more righteous than the Pharisees. However, it is of utmost importance to know the greatness of grace in our salvation. It gives us solid rock to stand on, Jesus Christ. Without this grace, faith falters on the sand of good works.

-joe

romans 3

Tonight at senior high we discussed the practical implications of Romans 3. That those who continue in sin so that "grace may abound" do not understand the Gospel, that it is the power of faith to those who believe. We talked about the mission of evangelism and the weight of our duty as Christians to tell the world the Gospel. In doing so, we are not to judge the world, because to tell them to act like Christ before they have the Spirit of God is to tell them to obey a law that leads them to a dead-end. The law apart from Christ is nothing.

We also talked about those on the flip side who do everything according to the law of 'goodness'. Who walk this earth as saints by their good deeds but do not have a faith in Christ and never point anyone towards the Gospel of repentance. For them, the law of works is also a dead end. Both of these sides must end in the propitiatory death of Jesus Christ.

Because of this idea, evangelism becomes most crucial. It also becomes most difficult because of the weight of the souls of men and the unwillingness of us, as believers, to actually tell anyone about the Gospel. It should weight heavy on our minds each day that those without Christ may cease to be alive tomorrow and will not be with God in heaven, but they will be forever in the torment of hell.

It is undeniable that we must do a better job of telling others the joy of Christ and the life that we live in accordance with faith in Him. We must again seek the power of the Gospel, the good news, so that all those who are destined will come to faith in Christ.

It all comes back to the Gospel. Live it and preach it.

-joe

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

scripture highlights

psalm 10:14-15, 17-18
"But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."
God, find the broken. Heal them. Give us hearts to reach out. Give me strength to love. Do justice for them.
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Romans 1:13
"that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine."
I spent two hours with my pastor today. It was a great time of encouragement for me. I hope it was the same for him. Fellowship of believers is so vital.
-
Jeremiah 8:11
"They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace."
I see this being played out today, folks claiming peace in the world. But, to me it seems that peace is not here, nor will it be until the end. What is peace? Is it not the great rest we shall find in the love of God?

-joe

romans 2

tonight at senior high youth, after an amazing time roller skating in logansport...we talked about the first 16 verses of romans 2.

we talked about mankind as a whole, how they are guilty before God with or without the law. then we got more specific, talking about how each of us is guilty before God. that our works will be held up in light of what we know. that this is a joy, not a burden, because knowing God and knowing more of the law actaully brings us joy on this earth. so each day we should seek to know more of the law so we can better walk as Christ did.

we also talked about suicide, whether or not a person can be saved who has ended their own life.
we talked about war, whether or not they are just, whether or not we should fight if called.

since both of those are pretty big topics, i'll be working on them at another point in time, maybe never. it was a good discussion tonight, though.

the rest of romans 2 for next week. read it. think about it. know it. live it. rejoice in it.

-joe

scripture highlights

psalm 25:2-3 "O my God, in you I trust;
                                let me not be put to shame;
                                let not my enemies exult over me
                            Indeed, none who wait for you shall
                                    be put to shame;
                                they shall be ashamed who are
                                    wantonly treacherous."
a plea and a promise...let me not be put to shame, indeed, none who wait will be. hallelujah
-
Romans 2:4b "...not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"
God loves us into salvation for the sake of His glory and he loves us into His grace for His namesake. (idea borrowed from John Owen)

-joe

another sunday

twas a good night, i think. the middle schoolers were unruly and out of control...which is to be expected. we talked about God's glory.
the high schoolers, as far as i could tell, were actually listening to the things i was saying. i talked about the glory of God as shown in the first chapter of Romans. after the first hour, i asked everyone to stick around and hang out...and they did, for a 1/2 hour. that to me, is encouraging. it was a bit halted at first, but after awhile they really started having a good time being in fellowship with one another.

i've decided that i'm going to take the high schoolers through romans, the basics of the faith are found spelled within its bounds. call me crazy, but i love that book.

the middle schoolers are going to be taking a journey through the OT, getting to understand the greatness of God in the story of mankind. they can only handle short stories. so, i'm thinking of doubling up next week instead of having a set 'lesson' time, i might just sprinkle a couple of stories throughout the evening instead.

i'm feeling pretty good about things. i pray that God would continue to encourage my heart and open both mine and theirs to His truth.

-joe