Now that I’ve freed up some time (or let’s be honest, now that I’ve started the day earlier), I can do some more writing, and some more work.
I’ve more or less bombed on two discussions on critical chapters on the book of Romans, yesterday and the Sunday before. I relied too much on what Q2 me had to write about on them, and I sounded like I was reading off a script.
My intention in this piece is to just re-visit Romans 9 and 10 in the light of all we’ve discussed from the first half of this wonderful book, before I actually start biting into Romans 11… and only then will I go back to what I actually wrote about Romans 11, last May… or was it June?
Let’s go.
First, a little disclaimer, and something I really should be repeating as we go along this, what I’ve called ‘The Roman Road’: One wonderful thing I’ve seen about the Bible is that it doesn’t just have a lot to unpack in just a verse, much more a chapter, and much more a book – it’s that what you read now isn’t necessarily what jumps out of the pages some other time, and some other season that you find yourself reading it.
You can find yourself going through one Proverb a day for a month for 12 months, and each time you go through each chapter, sure, you’ll probably recall a thing or two, but don’t be surprised if you see something new and something applicable to what’s going on in you and for you during those times.
Simply put, it comes with the Spirit. Roll with the Spirit as you read, and vice versa.
With that said, let’s quickly go through the Chapters, as I’ve been nailing them to everyone’s head every time I’ve had the chance to do so.
Romans 1 starts off with Paul proclaiming how the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and immediately following this with at least 3 points: (1) The glory of God is seen in all creation, (2) the unrighteous are without excuse, and not only ignore, but suppress the Truth, and (3) the wrath of God is that He ‘gave them up’ to, essentially, their insistences of truth, and the impact of the lies they choose to believe.
Romans 2 continues with at least 2 points: (1) the judgment of God apart from the wrath of God, which is His rendering to all according to their works, and judging their secret thoughts in Christ Jesus; but also, (2) he who is a Jew is one inwardly, implying that righteousness is not merely based on works, but in the heart.
What stands out for me in Romans 3 is how Paul states that ‘there is none righteous; no, not one’ and ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’… and now that I’m writing about it again, seeing as ‘all have sinned’, this means that we’re all subject to the wrath of God in Romans 1, and as ‘there is none righteous’, God will judge us accordingly, as mentioned in Romans 2.
…but, as I’ve been fond of saying through these weeks, the good news begins at the final verses of Chapter 3, where Paul says that we CAN be righteous – for there is a righteousness that is (1) apart from the Law and (2) through faith in Christ Jesus!
Romans 4 elaborates on that second point of faith, because Paul talks about Abraham, who, in spite of the odds against him, persisted in believing in God’s promises to him (of a rightful heir and of his being the father of many nations) – Paul specifically points out how he believed, ‘and this was counted to him for righteousness’. And just as Abraham believed in God (and, in my point of view, technically – immediately became father of all uncircumcised) and became righteous, so we believe in Christ, and we become righteous.
Romans 5 picks up on HOW we became righteous. By Adam’s disobedience, we were all rendered sinners, and unrighteous, unto death. But through Christ’s obedience, we have been reconciled to God, declared righteous unto eternal Life! Therefore, when we say that we believe in Jesus Christ, we are saying that we’ve been reconciled to God and have eternal Life, here and now!
What’s more is that, in the first part of the chapter, Paul does not hold back in saying that through Christ, whom we believe in, we have justification (that is, our legitimacy before God and our vindication from sin); therefore, we have peace with God (that is, we have both a peaceful RELATIONSHIP with God, and peace in His PRESENCE); therefore, we have access to this grace in which we stand (grace especially for our past and present), AND we rejoice in hope (for the future to come!)!
Yes, I’m reminding myself now that I DO need to remind myself of what we’ve been deriving in this season; It’s a mouthful, a whole bunch of words, but I just want to let it all out again and again. Sorry.
I’m only now remembering how if Romans 4 & 5 have us appreciating righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, Romans 6 & 7 also have us appreciating the same righteousness, in that it is apart from the Law.
It’s in Romans 6 where we’re reminded of how ‘the wages of sin is death’… but what happened is, Christ was the One who became sin and died. The same Christ who said, while with us in this reality, that He did not come to abolish, but to fulfill the Law, fulfilled the Law by becoming sin, and consequently, dying.
However, Paul wants to emphasize here that we have been ‘baptized into His death’; meaning, we died with Him. As such, sin no longer has any dominion over us, because we have died to sin, and through Christ’s resurrection, we’ve been confirmed under grace.
Romans 7 is where we’re consequently reminded of our being free from the Law (which is the Law of Sin and Death, as Paul points out in the next chapter). Through the Law we’ve come to know two things: (1) God’s absolute perfection, and (2) our hopeless imperfection, our hopeless sin… and the more that sin is pointed out, the more we actually do it.
To this end, again, Christ fulfilled this Law and satisfied it through His death, and in so doing, we have not only died to any obligation to sin, but we have also been set free from the Law of Sin and Death.
Romans 8 is where we’re introduced to a new Law we’ve been brought into – that is, the Law of the Spirit and (consequently) Life. We’re free from our function and programming to sin and to die, and now we’re free to live with the Spirit alive in us, in this life and the next.
We’ve chosen, in this season, to appreciate the Holy Spirit’s function in particular, from this Chapter. We’ve recently discussed what it means to live in the Spirit, and to let the Spirit live in and through us: (1) It means that we allow the Spirit to constantly convict us of our righteousness, but more importantly, to move in us so we recognize just how reconciled we are to God – we live and move in this life, knowing that the Creator of the Universe is our beloved Father.
(2) It also means that we have help and guidance when we pray, and even when we have no heart to pray, or words to say, it’s the Spirit Himself who intercedes for us (a) in groanings we would not understand and, more importantly, (b) according to the will of God.
I look back at all this and I think to myself, what a wonderful world salvation we have, in Jesus Christ, and through His finished work! We’re delivered from the wrath of God, we’re confident before the judgment of God, we’ve died to sin and made alive in the Spirit, we’ve been set free from the Law of sin and death, to the Law of Spirit and Life!
From here I could move on to Romans 9 to see what Paul has to say about this, but I think I should cut it off here – but NOT before answering the question: What does this mean to me in this lifetime, and in this reality?
Concerning the wrath of God, I’ve long been made aware of the consequences of my sin; hell, I’ve suffered a lot. But I’ve also realized that through it all, in my ignorance and now in Christ (in whom is life, and this life is my light as much as the light of men), God has been gracious; I’ve realized that it could have gone a whole lot worse than I’ve already been ashamed to share.
Even now I contemplate on the consequences of my suppressing the Truth and believing in lies, through impulsive one-time actions and consistent harmful habits; I live with some regret, but what keeps me going is that Truth of the matter – that none of this separates me from the love of God. I am at peace, in my silence and in my crying out to Him, knowing that this same God is my Father who is faithful to work all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Concerning the judgment of God, I’m no longer neurotic and paranoid. In my own journey of faith and believing in Christ, there were times, I recall, I was being so neurotic to NOT make any mistake, or NOT to sin, because I thought that would separate me from God. I was paranoid, thinking that maybe things I used to do in my past would be brought to light and I would be so humiliated when all of it would eventually play in that projector screen in the heavens, playing every shameful act I’ve done (you know the one, it’s the projector from Jack Chick’s This Is Your Life tract).
Plain and simple, I was afraid of ‘hurting’ God. But now that I’ve been taking in the sheer impact of Christ and His finished work, of how He not only became sin but took the grief and anxiety and fear of uncertainty at the cross, impacted so much that He (who always calls on His Father) calls Him in fear – ‘Eloi, Eloi, Lama Sabachthani?’
I’ll be honest, when Joseph Prince once preached about how God doesn’t leave us alone when we sin, but draws even closer to us when we make a mistake – well, that got to me. Furthermore, I’d like to believe that all the thought-investment that used to go to overthinking now goes to some actual strategic and tactical planning behind my movements.
At the cross, Christ was the One who was given up to the suppression of the Truth, and the consequent perversity, debauchery, and so on. At the cross, Christ was the One who became sin and was judged according to this sin. He took the wrath, and He took the judgment – all because He loved us so much to take God’s pleasure and favor.
Even apart from the said judgment before the great white throne… Christ has guaranteed, here and now, that I could RUN to this same throne at my time of need, calling it my throne of grace!
This grace I have, this salvation I have through Christ has me living in peace – and I do believe it is as Paul says in another epistle: It’s certainly a peace beyond my understanding, not one for me to grasp and contain, but more to trust and believe.
I have peace for what I’ve done, and peace for what I do.
And I have peace in cutting this short here, so I can rest and come back to it later.
Until the next post (again, coming very soon), may our great Father continue to bless us all.
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