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Chapter One - the Gospel
What does it mean to be “right with God?” Notice
that I’m purposely avoiding the word “righteous” or
“righteousness” because that word is generally
packaged up with a lot of baggage associated
with SELF-righteousness. (We’ll address that later
on.)
What does it mean to be “right with God?”
The book of Romans offers us a comprehensive
investigation into being right with God. This theme
is the banner of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
In the introductory greeting of Romans 1, Paul
identifies himself as a servant (or bondservant) of
Christ.
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an
apostle, set apart for the gospel of God...”
(Romans 1:1)
As a bondservant, Paul identifies himself as an
ultimately-devoted servant-by-choice. A
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bondservant is a former servant who has served
well. Furthermore a bondservant has been offered
his freedom. However, out of devotion to his
master, a bondservant is different than a servant in
that he has chosen to remain on as a servant to his
master. This decision to remain a servant when
freedom is offered is the ultimate submission to a
master.
This is how Paul describes himself with regards to
Christ.
Paul then refers to the fact that he has seen Jesus.
The “qualification” of being an apostle is to have
seen Jesus. Paul includes this in his greeting as a
form of reference, giving himself credit as being
called (or selected) as an apostle of Christ.
Finally, he is “set apart for the gospel of God…” This
refers to Paul’s distinct charge to preach the
gospel. This is key because the gospel is the KEY to
becoming right with God. More specifically, the
gospel is the only way to be right with God.
“...which he promised beforehand through his
prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning his Son,
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who was descended from David according to the
flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in
power according to the Spirit of holiness by his
resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord,
through whom we have received grace and
apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith
for the sake of his name among all the nations,
including you who are called to belong to Jesus
Christ, To all those in Rome who are loved by God
and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
(Romans 1:2-7)
Paul, using the world’s longest run-on sentence, (I
don’t know if that’s actually a record, so don’t
quote me on this,) surveys the entire gospel in the
first sentence of his letter to the Romans.
He identifies Jesus as a man of flesh who has
descended (as per the prophecies) from the line of
David. At the same time, He is the Son of God.
He identifies Jesus as being our source of grace
through his crucifixion.
He identifies Jesus as having been raised from the
dead.
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These are a snapshot of the gospel - the pathway
to being right with God.
Paul goes on to speak specifically to the people of
Rome. He encourages them, tells them that he is
praying for them, and shares how badly he would
like to be with them in Rome. He finishes this part of
his introduction by telling them how excited he is to
preach the gospel to them.
Paul is excited about preaching the gospel to the
Romans. This is because the gospel is good news!
Paul is anxious to spell out the path to being right
with God.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the
power of God for salvation to everyone who
believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith
for faith, as it is written, ‘The righteous shall live by
faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17)
Herein lays the crux of Paul’s message and the
challenge I have for our congregation. As
Christians, (more specifically Canadian Christians,)
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we are almost apologetic for bothering people
with the gospel message. This is so completely
backward that it would be amusing if it weren’t so
sad.
Imagine a world dying from a disease. Imagine
that you have been offered a cure for this disease
and your life has been saved because of it. Now
imagine that you have been given an unlimited
supply of this same cure and you’re given the task
of distributing this life-saving cure to as many
people suffering from the disease as possible.
How would you go about distributing this cure?
Would you store it in your house and keep it to
yourself so that you’re not “bothering” anyone? Or
would you scream it from the mountaintops that
you have the cure to save people’s lives?
There is a reason as to why Paul is not ashamed of
the gospel. It is the power to save! But he’s not
offering a cure to live a little longer on earth, rather
he is offering the way to be right with God for all
eternity.
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Granted, the major shortcoming of this analogy is
that people may not be convinced that they are
suffering from a life-ending disease. It is a little more
complicated to offer a solution to someone who
doesn’t see that there’s a problem.
However, this doesn’t change the stakes. As we’ll
see - in the next chapter - there is a problem we all
struggle with. This problem is sin and the
ramifications of this problem have eternal
significance.
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Chapter Two - the Problem of Sin
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the
truth.” (Romans 1:18)
I don’t know about you, but for me Romans 1:18
conjures images of flaming meteors crashing down
on the helpless sinner. Unfortunately, one of the
misled strategies of past preachers is to scare the
hell out of people using imagery as I’ve described.
But we can’t ignore the fact that Scripture is
descriptive when it comes to the wrath of God. This
can become a cumbersome paradox for those
who know God as a loving God. In truth, there are
respected leaders in the Church who have been
so awed by His grace and love that they can’t -
and choose to ignore - any other aspect of God’s
nature.
For the sake of examining this portion of Scripture
and for the sake of setting up a clear
understanding of sin, I need to deviate from a
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focus on the wrath of God and look more plainly at
that which stirs up his wrath.
Sin is a tricky business…
Sin is something that nobody in their right mind
wants to talk about. While some people love to talk
about other people’s sins, I have not encountered
someone with such masochistic tendencies as to
enjoy talking about his or her own sin.
I should clarify that… Nobody - who acknowledges
the nature of sin and the subsequent
consequences of sin - enjoys talking about his or
her own sin. Sin is generally a privately-run business
without advertising.
Before we go any further down the line, let’s talk
about what sin is. Simply put, sin separates us from
God. It takes us away from being “right with God.”
The self-advocating lawyer in all of us would
probably ask to see a comprehensive list of sins in
order to evaluate whether or not they could be
found guilty of committing any of them. But the first
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step isn’t to figure out the list of sins, but rather, to
figure out why it is important to be right with God.
Understanding that sin is the barrier to being right
with God is only useful if you care about being right
with God.
Later in Romans, (6:23) we’ll see that the wages of
sin is death. This means that your payment for
sinning is death. More specifically, eternal
separation from God.
To understand the ramifications of this statement,
we need to first understand and believe that your
life is more than just the 80 or so years you’ll have
on earth. To fully appreciate the impact of sin, we
need to understand and believe that something
happens to us after we die.
To be blunt, when we die, we receive our
“payment” for the sin in our life. When I say “we” I
mean everyone. Romans 3:23 spells it out, “...for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”
Everyone who has ever lived has sinned. Everyone
who has ever sinned deserves the death penalty.
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When we look at it this way, it is clear to see that
we’re not talking about some small thing. So, (as I
mentioned earlier,) if we understand sin and its
eternal implications, we’re likely to take sin very
seriously.
Taking sin seriously can look differently for different
people. Some are fearful of sin to the point of
being
Law-worshipers. They are (justifiably) so unsettled
with sin that they will take extreme measures to
avoid it and will be OCD in their attempts to
cleanse themselves of sin. These sin-fearers are (in
my opinion) few and far-between. While running
from sin is good practice for anybody, this
framework for “dealing with sin” will often lead to a
judgmental spirit against those who aren’t as
militant in the war on sin. This person is your classic
Pharisee.
The Pharisee can be distracted by the Law to the
point where they miss the point of the Law. Jesus
simplified the Old Covenant Law to address the
spirit of the Law which fell into two “new” laws.
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We’re told to love God more than anything.
Second, we’re told to love others as much as we
love ourselves. An overvaluation of the “thou shalt
nots” has a tendency to cause an undervaluation
of loving others.
A second response to sin is the guilt-bearer. The
enemy is quite familiar with sin. (duh) He loves to
dig up your sin and put it on your fireplace mantle
or car dashboard for you to remember. He loves to
whisper guilt in your ear to remind you of your sins
and how they’ve made you dirty and separated
you from God.
If you feel uncomfortable with your sin, that’s good.
If you get mired down and immobilized by the guilt
that comes from sin, that’s the work of the enemy.
The guilt-bearer’s reaction to sin can be a
tendency to not react, but just wallow.
Over time, we can become in danger of apathy
when it comes to sin. When the weather changes,
kids start showing up barefoot more often. I don’t
know about you, but when I was a kid, I had a
recurring experience where my feet were always
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quite sensitive to stones and gravel at the
beginning of summer. However, after days and
weeks of running around in the yard, I developed
“summer feet”. My feet had become hardened to
that which used to make me feel uncomfortable.
Similarly, we’re often troubled by our sins at first.
Like the pebbles of Spring, we’re uncomfortable
and sensitive to sin. As we walk in sin for an
extended time, we’re more likely to become quite
used to it and relatively unbothered by it. This is
another problem of sin.
Our reactions aside, the problem of sin is that it
separates us from God. Moreover, there is
absolutely nothing we can do to fix this problem of
sin on our own. That’s bad news.
The good news is that God has a plan for dealing
with sin. It is the ultimate free gift that we will talk
about in Chapter Three.
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Chapter Three - the Answer for Sin
(Note from the Author: This chapter is almost
entirely a collection of copied-and-pasted
Scripture. To be honest, I felt tempted to editorialize
more than I ended up doing. I found that I simply
wanted to restate that which Paul had already
said so eloquently. I have chosen the Message
translation of the Bible which already makes the
content so explicitly-clear. I would apologize for
using someone else’s words so much, but they’re
really, really good words.)
“But in our time something new has been added.
What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all
those years has happened. The God-setting-things-
right that we read about has become Jesus-
setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for
everyone who believes in him. For there is no
difference between us and them in this. Since
we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as
sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are
utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God
wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity
he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift.
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He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us
to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it
by means of Jesus Christ.
God sacrificed Jesus on the altar of the world to
clear that world of sin. Having faith in him sets us in
the clear. God decided on this course of action in
full view of the public—to set the world in the clear
with himself through the sacrifice of Jesus, finally
taking care of the sins he had so patiently endured.
This is not only clear, but it’s now—this is current
history! God sets things right. He also makes it
possible for us to live in his rightness.” (Romans 3:21-
26 MSG)
Jesus set things right for us. This is THE answer to the
problem of sin. God “set the world in the clear with
himself through the sacrifice of Jesus…”
The companion-thought to the fact that it is only by
Jesus that we can get right with God, is the notion
that we are incapable of getting right with God
without Jesus.
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“But by shifting our focus from what we do to what
God does, don’t we cancel out all our careful
keeping of the rules and ways God commanded?
Not at all. What happens, in fact, is that by putting
that entire way of life in its proper place, we
confirm it.” (Romans 3:31 MSG)
This little nugget is an important cog in balancing
our behavioural responsibilities with the freedom
that comes with Jesus’ grace.
Ultimately what Paul is saying is that our actions do
not decide our rightness with God, but our rightness
with God, (as enabled by Jesus,) will inform and
inspire our actions.
“So how do we fit what we know of Abraham, our
first father in the faith, into this new way of looking
at things? If Abraham, by what he did for God, got
God to approve him, he could certainly have
taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a
God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in
Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was
doing for him, and that was the turning point. He
trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be
right on his own.” (Romans 4:1-3 MSG)
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Reconciling Mosaic Law and this new concept of
grace through Jesus is a recurring theme in Paul’s
letter to the Romans. This is a real curveball to all
that they’ve been practicing as Jews.
“If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you
deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift.
But if you see
that the job is too big for you, that it’s something
only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you
could never do it for yourself no matter how hard
and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-
it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer
gift.” (Romans 4:4-5 MSG)
Sheer gift. King David confirms this gift for all who
would receive it. Paul quotes David to hammer
home his point. Then, he describes the problem of
contractual promises.
“If those who get what God gives them only get it
by doing everything they are told to do and filling
out all the right forms properly signed, that
eliminates personal trust completely and turns the
promise into an ironclad contract! That’s not a holy
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promise; that’s a business deal. A contract drawn
up by a hard-nosed lawyer and with plenty of fine
print only makes sure that you will never be able to
collect. But if there is no contract in the first place,
simply a promise—and God’s promise at that—you
can’t break it.
This is why the fulfillment of God’s promise depends
entirely on trusting God and his way, and then
simply embracing him and what he does. God’s
promise arrives as pure gift. That’s the only way
everyone can be sure to get in on it, those who
keep the religious traditions and those who have
never heard of them. (Romans 4:15b-16 MSG)
“The sacrificed Jesus made us fit for God, set us
right with God.” (Romans 4:25b)
Being right with God is most-often a reflective,
backwards-looking exercise. When we look at the
sacrifice Jesus made for us in order to be right with
God, we’re looking into the past. We’re looking at
what Jesus did - once and for all - to make us right
with God. We’re looking at the slate-wiping that
happened to our past sins.
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Being right with God has an equal effect on our
present and our future! The way we approach life -
when we know the covering power of Jesus’
sacrifice - is changed.
“By entering through faith into what God has
always wanted to do for us—set us right with him,
make us fit for him—we have it all together with
God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not
all: We throw open our doors to God and discover
at the same moment that he has already thrown
open his door to us. We find ourselves standing
where we always hoped we might stand—out in
the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory,
standing tall and shouting our praise.
There’s more to come: We continue to shout our
praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles,
because we know how troubles can develop
passionate patience in us, and how that patience
in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping
us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert
expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling
short-changed. Quite the contrary—we can’t
round up enough containers to hold everything
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God generously pours into our lives through the
Holy Spirit!
Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He
didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He
presented himself for this sacrificial death when we
were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to
get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been
so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do
anyway. We can understand someone dying for a
person worth dying for, and we can understand
how someone good and noble could inspire us to
selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for
us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we
were of no use whatever to him.
Now that we are set right with God by means of
this sacrificial death, the consummate blood
sacrifice, there is no longer a question of being at
odds with God in any way. If, when we were at our
worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by
the sacrificial death of his Son, now that we’re at
our best, just think of how our lives will expand and
deepen by means of his resurrection life! Now that
we have actually received this amazing friendship
with God, we are no longer content to simply say it
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in plodding prose. We sing and shout our praises to
God through Jesus, the Messiah!”
(Romans 5:1-11 MSG)
Having our sins erased is a gift without equal.
However, this life-giving gift surpasses that of the
original death-dealing sin. It doesn’t just cover it off
to make our “eternal bank balance” to be zero.
Where our death-sentence, (as a result of our sin,)
was a one-shot deal, the gift of eternal life not only
defies death, but it promises a life where we’ll be
blessed over and over.
“You know the story of how Adam landed us in the
dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one
exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed
relations with God in everything and everyone, but
the extent of the disturbance was not clear until
God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this
huge abyss separating us from God, dominated
the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those
who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying
a specific command of God still had to experience
this termination of life, this separation from God. But
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Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to
the One who will get us out of it.
Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the
death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of
people at the dead-end abyss of separation from
God, just think what God’s gift poured through one
man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison
between that death-dealing sin and this generous,
life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the
death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that
followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death
got the upper hand through one man’s
wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking
recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who
grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-
gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one
man Jesus Christ provides?
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it
wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and
death, another person did it right and got us out of
it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he
got us into life! One man said no to God and put
many people in the wrong; one man said yes to
God and put many in the right.
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All that passing laws against sin did was produce
more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t,
have a chance in competition with the aggressive
forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus
grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is
threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it.
Grace, because God is putting everything together
again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life
that goes on and on and on, world without end.”
(Romans 5:12-21 MSG)
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Chapter Four – What Now? (part I)
It only took mankind 3 chapters into the first book
of the Bible to bring sin into the world. Then, before
Chapter 3 even ended, God revealed His plan for
saving us from sin.
With the Bible’s plot presumably revealed within
the first 20 pages of a 1000+ page book, there
appears to be plenty of room for a well-conceived
dénouement.
While nothing about sin and Christ’s sacrifice or us is
simple or trite, the parallels in our own Christian
walk are plentiful when it comes to the time
devoted to “What now?”
To make sure we’re all on the same page, let’s
review the last two chapters of this sermon
booklet…
First, we have the problem of sin. It’s a two-fold
problem in that everybody is a sinner (Romans
3:23) and that the consequence for those sins is
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death. (Romans 6:23) This is a big deal for which
there is only one answer.
Romans 6:23 finishes by saying, “…but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
This is the answer to the problem of sin. Jesus Christ
– the perfect sacrifice – died in our place so that
we could live eternally with God.
Ellis J. Crum penned the lyrics to an old church
song. It states the situation perfectly,
“He paid a debt He did not owe;
I owed a debt I could not pay;
I needed someone to wash my sins away.
And, now, I sing a brand new song,
‘Amazing Grace.’
Christ Jesus paid a debt that I could never pay.”
So while everything seems tied up in a neat, little
bow – our debt is paid; we live happily ever after –
a lingering problem persists… we still keep sinning.
This is an ugly truth of humanity. If anyone says to
you, “Jesus saved me and I don’t sin anymore,”
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they just lied to you. (Which is yet another on the
pile of their sins.)
However, if someone says to you, “Jesus saved me
and takes my sin on His shoulders so that I can be
free,” understands God’s grace.
So, “What now?” becomes a very important
question.
What happens now that our sins have been
forgiven and accounted for?
Do we never sin again? Well, if we understand the
intensity of the truth of our salvation, we’re likely
compelled to keep our noses a little cleaner. But to
suggest that we can simply put an end to sin in our
lives is naive.
Do we sin with impunity? Knowing that our sins are
forgiven and accounted for, are we free to sin as
we please, using the blank-cheque-of-God’s-
grace? Well, if we understand the intensity of the
truth of our salvation, we’re likely compelled to
regard God’s grace with greater respect than that.
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Chapter Five – What Now? (part II)
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can
keep on forgiving?” (Romans 6:1)
Sometimes it can feel as though we’ve been living
out of a dumpster in Las Vegas, only to be rescued
in a limousine and driven out to the beautiful coast
of Oregon. While this is all good news, we’re faced
with finding our way in Oregon.
So what do we do? Do we begin the walk back to
Vegas? Knowing that we can be saved by the
limousine-driver, do we saunter back into sin?
Things should be different in our new life! We should
be excited about finding and following a new
path.
“You can readily recall, can’t you, how at one time
the more you did just what you felt like doing—not
caring about others, not caring about God—the
worse your life became and the less freedom you
had?” (Romans 6:19)
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It’s one thing to walk blindly into a mistake. It’s
quite another to know – full well – the mistake
you’re walking into.
“And how much different is it now as you live in
God’s freedom, your lives healed and expansive in
holiness? As long as you did what you felt like
doing, ignoring God, you didn’t have to bother
with right thinking or right living, or right anything for
that matter. But do you call that a free life? What
did you get out of it? Nothing you’re proud of now.
Where did it get you? A dead end.” (Romans
6:19b-21)
Hindsight being 20/20, we have the ability to reflect
on our life before Jesus made the eternal
difference. Most likely, (on close inspection,) your
life without Christ was more empty. [Note from the
author: This statement is loaded to the point of
explosion. Unfortunately, there isn’t the ink
available to address/qualify the statement in this
document, but I would never want to leave the
matter unaddressed. If you have questions or
comments, please email the author at
[email protected].] Most likely, your life without
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Christ was more empty. Jesus was the answer to
the question you had for life.
With that in mind, choosing to return to that life
without Christ is not unlike a dog choosing to return
to his vomit.
As clear as the decision for reform may be, it is still
quite something to undergo the life-changes that
should follow a decision to follow Jesus. Not unlike
turning a cruise ship around, it is a slow and
intentional process.
In simplest terms, the key to life-change after your
eternal life-change is in your decision to make
Jesus your Lord as much as your Saviour.
We don’t have a lot of lords around these days. As
a fan of historical fiction, the authority of a lord is
not lost on me. The lord of the land holds authority
over the land and its holdings.
Similarly, when we choose Jesus to be Lord of our
lives, we choose to put him on the throne as
governor of our lives. This means that we’re to obey
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His commands. While once, this was a legalistic list
of laws, today we’re given a two-command edict:
Love God more than anyone or anything and love
others as much as you love yourself.
This is the answer to the challenge of “What now?”
When we live with Jesus as our Lord, we put Him in
His proper place in our lives – on the throne. This
should affect our behaviour and cause us to
worship Him above anyone or anything else.
Likewise, we should be compelled to love those
around us as much as we love ourselves.
When we make a life-decision like this, we will see
the fruit in our lives. No longer will we walk ourselves
into the “dead end” mentioned in Romans 6.
Rather than walking back into another lord’s
kingdom on the streets of Las Vegas, we choose a
new path along the coast of Oregon.
[One final note from the author: the use of Las
Vegas and Oregon are gratuitous. Both the city of
Las Vegas and the state of Oregon are inert with
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regards to their spirituality. That said, the people of
Las Vegas have worked diligently to cultivate a city
of “sin” which made for a simple, analogous sin-
kingdom. To be honest, I’m not sure why I chose
Oregon as the alternative. ☺]
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Chapter Six – How can we know?
As if to anticipate our questions, Paul goes into
more detail about the assurances we have in this
life of faith. So far, he has written about our
sinfulness and the consequences of sin, the hope
we have as a payment for sin, and a guideline for
how to live life after new life has been found.
In Romans 10, Paul goes a step deeper to make it
even clearer as to where we stand by comparing
the life of faith to life under the law.
“For Moses writes about the righteousness that is
based on the law, that the person who does the
commandments shall live by them.” (Romans 10:5)
Mosaic Law provided a rigid, fenced-in area in
which to live.
This fenced-in area was a protected “reserve” for
the Israelites to live within so that they would
remain pure and safe from the harms of the world
outside of the reserve. It was the right plan for that
time.
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“But the righteousness based on faith…” (Romans
10:6) states that it’s not about being inside the
fenced-area anymore. It’s not a game of
observing who is and isn’t safe in the “reserve”.
“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in
your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of
faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess
with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in
your heart that God raised him from the dead, you
will be saved.”
(Romans 10: 8-9)
The gates of the fence have been thrown wide-
open. This would be a terrifying message to the
Jews who have held to the Mosaic Law for
centuries – proud in their safety and fearful of the
world outside.
Our protection – which used to come in the form of
fencing – now comes from the Word in our mouths
and in our hearts; the Word of Faith. If we confess
with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in
our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we
will be saved!
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This transformative declaration is like being bound
by the oceans on an island, and then being given
scuba gear to allow us to breathe underwater. We
are no longer bound by what used to be our only
refuge. Now, we’re free to enter into the depths of
the ocean with the key to life God has given us.
If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, we
have made a decision to align ourselves with the
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Under His
protection, we’re free to move about the country.
“For with the heart one believes and is justified, and
with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the
Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will
not be put to shame.’” (Romans 10:10-11)
Paul goes on to reiterate that when he says
“everyone” he really means “everyone”. It doesn’t
matter what your walk of life is, what you’ve done
or who you are, EVERYone who believes in Him will
not be put to shame.
Can we take a moment to address a common
question of faith? I have had so many people
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worry aloud about their state of salvation. People
have asked me how they can know if they’re
saved or not.
With all necessary patience for those who are
sincerely troubled by this question, I would argue
that Paul makes it all as clear as you could ever ask
for.
“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
This is the point of justification we discussed in
Chapter Three. This is the point where the course
set for eternity has been altered by 180º and you
are living a life towards eternity with Christ.
The process of sanctification we discussed in
Chapters Four and Five is the process of becoming
more like Him. The decision to submit to His Lordship
will inevitably change who we are and how we
behave. We’ll still struggle with the remnants of
living in that previous “kingdom”, but we’re not
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subjects of that land anymore and do not need to
answer for our struggles there.
“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord
and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
If this seems too easy, or too good to be true, that
is because the salvation you’ve received is – in
essence – unfair. However, it’s unfair to your
advantage and it’s potentially unfair to EVERYone’s
advantage, which makes things all quite fair.
The real contention should be for those who
haven’t heard this gospel message - that they can
be saved by an unfair exchange of their sins for
their salvation.
“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?”
(Romans 10:14-15)
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Herein lays the engine behind the Great
Commission. (Matthew 28:16-20) We need to go!
We need to move past the excitement and joy of
being saved and move! Our lives become filled
with purpose and that purpose is to do whatever
we can to tell as many people we can about this
salvation that is available to them.
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Chapter Seven – Transformed not Conformed
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies
of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual
worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be
transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by
testing you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
(Romans 12:1-2)
Presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice which is
holy and acceptable to God sounds like an
extraordinary task. How can we present ourselves
as a sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God?
Paul doesn’t leave us hanging. He gives us the
recipe for putting together just such a sacrifice.
We’re not to be conformed to the world, but
transformed by the renewal of our minds. Then,
we’ll be able to discern the Will of God to know
what is acceptable and perfect.
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So the real question is, “How do we avoid being
conformed to the world?” The follow up question
would be, “How can we be transformed by the
renewal of our minds?”
When I consider the word “conform” my mind goes
to advertisements for bed mattresses. The sales
pitch always comes back to how this mattress will
conform to the shape of your body. The reason
that this is important to the consumer is that it
makes your sleep more comfortable.
Here’s the measuring-stick to see if you’ve
conformed to the world... Are you comfortable in
this world? More specifically, are you comfortable
with the culture of the world you live in? Does
everything just “feel good?” If it does, I would
suggest that you’ve conformed to the world.
It’s interesting… there are several hot button topics
(which I won’t distract you with by giving specifics)
which are clearly in conflict with what we learn in
the Bible. When you measure the ideas and
philosophies, political stances or morality against
what it says in the Bible, there is a stark conflict.
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Culture, however, is like a boat floating at sea. An
inexperienced sailor will float on a changing tide
and not notice a thing. As the ocean rises and falls,
everything seems to rise and fall with it. Culture is a
terrible measuring stick in that it ebbs and flows
however the popular opinion takes it.
Measuring things against the culture is as absurd as
measuring yourself, year-after-year, by putting your
hand on your head and saying, “Hmmm… I’m the
same height as the day I was born.”
We need to have an absolute to measure
ourselves against. When measuring height, we
stand against a measuring stick or against the
marked-up door jam of your family home. We have
something to compare our changes to.
Sadly, many Christians today measure themselves
against culture. When culture is the lens by which
we evaluate life, we can become easily
convinced of non-absolutes. Because our cultural
lens has to change, surely, things like morality have
to change to “keep up with the times.”
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Paul calls us to be transformed by the renewal of
our minds. This is the act of reflection back to what
we know to be true.
I am terrible at the board game, Clue. When I play
a game with my family, the last thing I want to be
doing is furrowing my brow and thinking harder
than I would be in school. I get easily frustrated by
the swirling clues left behind in the brutal murder of
Colonel Mustard. (Or was he the murderer? I’m so
confused.)
My wife has tried to tutor me several times. She
patiently explains that it’s a matter of accurately
recording what you know to be true. Sounds simple
enough, but I still don’t do well.
We’re called to do the same thing when we renew
our minds. If we return to what we know to be true,
our minds will be transformed away from
conforming to this world’s culture and will see
things the way they truly are.
This process of renewal may be simple but it’s not
easy. The noise of the world around us can be
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overwhelming. Monasticism has the answer to this
in that a monk will simply retreat from the world.
This surely solves the problem of being conformed
to the world, but creates another problem in that
we’ve got no voice or impact in the world.
Returning to truth does not require a physical
retreat, but a “spiritual retreat” of renewing our
minds is essential.
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Chapter Eight – Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
On May 29th, 2013, the incomparable Bob Cole
gave us the now-legendary words, “Relax
everybody... relax.” He was encouraging the fans
and viewers to sit back and await the results of a
review for an important goal in the Stanley Cup
playoffs between Chicago and Detroit.
It could be said that Paul gave us these same
words in his letter to the Romans.
Romans 14 is a chapter of two parts. In the first half
of the chapter, we’re essentially told to relax. “As
for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but
not to quarrel over opinions.” (Romans 14:1)
How much better off would we - the Church - be if
we could heed these instructions? On that vein,
how much damage has been done - in the Church
- by quarrelling over opinions?
Let’s be clear. Paul isn’t advocating a head-in-the-
sand, can’t-we-all-just-get-along mentality. He
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goes on to give some examples of how we can
“relax” in some areas of our faith.
“One person believes he may eat anything, while
the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the
one who eats despise the one who abstains, and
let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the
one who eats, for God has welcomed him.”
(Romans 14:2-3)
As much as I - as a carnivore - would love to
highlight Paul’s reference to the “weak” person
only eating vegetables, that’s not the point. :) Paul
is explaining that this is a non-essential to our faith.
Similarly, he writes, “One person esteems one day
as better than another, while another esteems all
days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in
his own mind. The one who observes the day,
observes it in honor of the Lord.” (Romans 14:5-6)
Sandwiched in between verses 3 and 5 is the
explanation in verse 4: “Who are you to pass
judgment on the servant of another? It is before his
own master that he stands or falls. And he will be
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upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.”
(Romans 14:4)
This is an incredibly valuable (and transferable) life-
lesson we can all learn from.
Who am I to pass judgment on someone else? Who
are you to pass judgement on someone else.
We’ve got all the Judge we’ll ever need and -
ultimately - we’ll be accountable to Him.
St.Augustine once coined the phrase that John
Wesley used as his doctrinal mantra, “In essentials,
unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all-things, charity.”
While this isn’t canonized Scripture, it’s summative
with regards to Paul’s theology in Romans 14.
There are some things (which are quite few) that
we deem “essential” core truths in faith. The book
of Romans outlines these essentials quite vividly. In
these essentials, we either align ourselves or draw
our lines in the sand. If we’re not unified with the
essentials of Christian faith, then we’re simply not
Christian.
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The non-essentials are another matter. These are
nuances in our faith which could become a part of
defining different Christian denominations. In the
city of Maple Ridge, (the city in which NorthRidge is
located,) there are many wonderful Christian
churches. Someone may ask why we can’t all co-
exist and become one, massive church family?
The truth is that each church has it’s distinctive
flavour. While we have unity in the essentials -
which allow the different pastors to meet regularly
for a very unified time of prayer for our city - we
may have distinctives in our non-essentials.
These distinctions between churches may be
doctrinal or even as simple as stylistic. The key is
that they’re not doctrinal pillars we’re talking
about, they’re doctrinal window-coverings.
St.Augustine does his best Bob Cole impersonation
when he says, “In all things, charity.” Just relax.
Too often, we burn out relationships in arguments
over non-essentials. Time would be much better
spent on other things.
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As if to bring balance in anticipation of abuse of
the liberty St.Augustine speaks of, Paul writes,
“Therefore let us not pass judgment on one
another any longer, but rather decide never to put
a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a
brother.” (Romans 14:13) Before you choose to
gorge yourself on a bacon-
wrapped turducken and post the feast on
Facebook in an attempt to freak out your vegan
friends, consider the point of verse 13.
While we may be at liberty - because of the New
Covenant - to partake in certain things, they may
still be a hang-up for our brothers or sisters.
One of the most common cases of stumbling block
I’ve encountered is in the area of drinking alcohol.
Whatever your non-essential view of alcohol
consumption may be, we should agree that if you
choose to drink alongside a brother or sister who
struggles with alcoholism, you are taking the risk of
being a stumbling block in their battle with alcohol
addiction. This kind of behaviour flies in the face of
our New Covenant calling to love our neighbours.
The issue isn’t your non-essential view on drinking,
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the issue is that you’re taking the risk of causing
your neighbour to stumble.
“So then let us pursue what makes for peace and
for mutual upbuilding.” (Romans 14:19)
“The faith that you have, keep between yourself
and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to
pass judgment on himself for what he approves.”
(Romans 14:22)
In verse 22, Paul is discouraging us to check others,
and encouraging us to check ourselves. We are
considered blessed when we find no reason to
pass judgment on ourselves for what we approve.
While this may come across as smorgasbord faith
(choose whatever feels good) remember that Paul
is specifically addressing the non-essentials of faith.
In essentials, we must be unified. In non-essentials,
we need to just relax. In all things, we need to be
charitable in that some people are wrestling with
some non-essentials in a way that makes them
more essential than perhaps they should be.