GOD’S SHOUT IS GRACE - Romans 9 & 10

 GOD’S SHOUT IS GRACE - Romans 9 & 10

“What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. As it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble, and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.” – Romans 9 : 30-33

Here in Romans  9 & 10, Paul declares that the “dividing” wall of hostility between Jew and Gentile has been removed in Christ. God promised that all nations would be made righteous through his seed.  Israel throughout its history completely missed this and despised the Gentiles and treated them as inferior, thinking of themselves as superior since they have and "kept" Gods law. 

God doesn’t want to find fault with people. He loves the world. God loves us. He wants a relationship with us. It was out of his good pleasure that he created us. His intention is to have a people who are his own who will draw near to him for all time and eternity in an intimate covenant relationship. Jesus came to bring us into that relationship. He came to take us out of our own righteousness and bring us into His righteousness. A perfect righteousness that causes us to relate perfectly to God. Through Israel under the law man’s righteousness is an unstable and inferior righteousness that cannot sustain a relationship with God. God wanted an infallible and unbreakable relationship with mankind that would last for all eternity and that’s why the new covenant is a superior and far better covenant arrangement than the old law based on,

This was highlighted to Israel in no uncertain terms, 40 years (A generation) before the Northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into exile by the Assyrian Empire. During the reign of Jeroboam II God raised up and commissioned a prophet, Jonah to declare and demonstrate his grace to Israel by offering forgiveness and blessing to the underserving gentile city of Nineveh. There was nothing good about Nineveh, nothing deserving, nothing qualified them. But God sent Jonah to them to offer righteousness with him, based solely on believing the promise of God. This was more than just an offer, it was a declaration to Israel, that if they turned from the yoke of the law, God would turn from sending them into captivity. The Gentiles were chosen to show the children of Abraham, just how much God loved them. 

In the book of Jonah, we can see God’s intentional love and grace offered to unqualified people, to demonstrate that once God gives a promise, he is committed to keeping it. Israel was given a promise, but the promise of Christ and freedom from the law needed to be believed. 

THE PROMISE IS TRUE - Romans 4

“He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” - Romans 4 : 20-22

God chose Abram and it is important to understand that Abram did not qualify. It is evident that it was not because Abram was a holy and righteous man that God chose him. In fact, he never knew God, but God chose him. God came to him and told him he was going to bless him. He told him that he was choosing him to qualify for his blessings. And to seal it with Abram, God was going to make a covenant with him. God swore an oath, and bound himself to him with a promise that said, “I will bless you and make you into many nations even though you do not deserve it.”

Abraham believed the promise! It was an amazing moment in history, that a childless man believed in a promise that God would bless him and give him a child. And because he believed God and considered the promise to be true, it was counted to him as righteousness.

Therefore, It was in and through the grace of God that would be later paid for and completed by Christ’s perfect sacrifice and finished work at the cross. 

God's promise is as inevitable as rain falling. His promise is secure. God does not lie. We are called to inherit his promises. The Holy Spirit in us is the promise of God to give us all things in grace. And just as Abraham without the Holy Spirit believed the promise, we with the Indwelling power of Christ are encouraged to have a confident expectation that God’s promise made manifest in Christ is ours.

For Abraham, God's promise to him became the anchor point of his life. This anchor point is now the promise fulfilled in Christ and the grace we now live through the finished work of the cross.

LIVE IN THE SPIRIT - ROMANS 12

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12 : 1-2

Renewing the mind? We have heard this so much as Christians, but what does it actually mean? In the context of this letter to the Romans from chapters 1 to 11 what does the word renewing mean here?

Most people will tell you that it means to get your mind to line up with the Bible and the more you read and study the Bible and get revelation on it the more your mind will be renewed. Now I have no problem with this but I don’t believe that this tells the complete story! This definition although helpful does not tell us what renewing the mind is. In fact, it just assumes what it is! 

Renewing here in Romans 12 : 2 means “to make new” or “back to new” or “new again.” It is a statement that tells us that once our minds were new, then they became old, and now they need to be new again. It has everything to do with all that Paul has been saying in Romans chapters 5 - 8. This statement here is the conclusion of all that Paul had previously written. 

It is talking to us to renew our minds to the fact that we have died to the flesh and are now alive in the spirit. When we are in Christ we are now alive in the spirit and are free from the flesh and Adam.

God's nature is in you, you have been transferred from living in Adam to living in Christ. Your spirit was made righteous and you were given a new nature, the God nature, his desire and encouragement to you is that you now walk in this nature and this nature becomes your daily experience. Your new spirit in Christ is empowered by a new position in Christ and it would be alien and strange to go back to that old place under the law where you were under the dominion of sin. 

It is the desire of God that you renew your mind to this amazing reality that you have died to your old inherited sin nature in Adam and have become a new creation in Christ in your new nature from God. To take every thought captive and live now from your new creation spirit man.

THE POWER OF SALVATION - Romans 1

“I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes first for the Jew and then for the Gentile". - Romans 1 : 16

Paul in his opening statement of Romans describes the gospel as the power unto salvation to all who believe. That word "salvation" is the word "soterio" and the short version is "sozo". It means "wholeness, health and blessing and provision and protection". Some people think that salvation means only going to heaven. So get this, it doesn't speak about "heaven" here. Paul says I am not ashamed of the Gospel for it is the power of God unto wholeness, protection, preservation, cleansing, power for provision for health, for wholeness for all who believe! 

Today when you hear people say; "I am not ashamed of this gospel" - they do not mean the same thing that Paul means. Paul lived in a time that was dominated by the Old Covenant law way of thinking. The very idea that someone could be righteous apart from their work, performance, or obedience was an alien thing. They would kill you and stone you if you said you were the righteousness of God apart from your law, works or performance. 

Paul says I am not ashamed to say that the power that operates in you for wholeness, health, wellbeing, preservation, and protection doesn't come from my works but it comes from a gift of righteousness that is God's gift to me. That is how I reign in life! Not through my works, not through how well I do, my obedience, or my holiness - it comes from a gift of righteousness. This is the message that brings liberty and freedom and deliverance  - this message of grace brings people into liberty! 

"for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed - a righteousness that is by faith from first to last. Just as it is written the righteous will live by faith". - Romans 1 : 17

How does this great power flow? What is the cause of this power? What releases this power? A revelation that a righteousness from God has been given to you as a free gift. No obligation! Just believe it and you will see the outworking of it!

PREDESTINED IN CHRIST- Romans 8 : 28 - 39

 PREDESTINED IN CHRIST- Romans 8 : 28 - 39

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” - Romans 8 : 28 - 30

Many of us read the above verses and look at them from the wrong perspective. They take them out of context and try to answer questions that do not exist. The question that the majority ask is, “Who has God predestined?” But it is not about that! It is more about that Christ before time was predestined. 

Paul in chapters 5  to 8 has revealed that mankind is either “in Adam” or “in Christ” and that Christ was God’s plan, held in His foreknowledge to be the total and righteous solution for all mankind. This is the span of God’s eternal grace covenant right here! In the context of all that has gone before in Romans, it should now be read - “Before time he chose you to be In Christ. In time he justified you in Christ. After time he glorified you in Christ.” And all in the “past” tense to declare that it was always God’s plan right from the start for you to be in Christ. You were always predestined to be in Christ before the foundation of the world.   

Notice how none of the qualifications has anything to do you? Only God can qualify people. The only thing we are called to do is to believe the promise of Christ. God does not call the qualified. He calls us all, because, in Adam, we are incapable of qualifying ourselves! He asks us to respond to his offer of love, his offer to be our qualification. Those who respond to Christ, die to their old sin nature and are reborn into Christ, where he justifies us, he makes us righteous and he ultimately glorifies us. Those who don’t and continue to rely on their own efforts will, unfortunately, be lost.

NO CONDEMNATION - ROMANS 8 : 1 - 27

 

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,” - Romans 8: 1

Why is there no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus? It is because now   “In Christ” you have died to the old man in Adam and you are now released from the condemnation of the law. Your first marriage partner has died and you are now married to Christ. In Christ, you have found love, intimacy, beauty, and new life. All the voices of condemnation have died and are silenced. A dead person cannot raise there voice to condemn, the voice that now speaks to you tells you that you are now loved forever and you can never be separated from this love.

Now you are birthed by the spirit of Christ, you are a new creation in Christ. You are no longer a child of the flesh, birthed in Adam, in the flesh. Paul picks up the revelation he started with a few chapters earlier in Romans 5 where he declares that you were once born in flesh in Adam and this meant that you inherited a sin nature, but now you are born in Christ, by the spirit and now you have inherited his righteousness. You are now holy and righteous in Christ, so don’t slip back into living by the flesh, your old and dead nature in Adam.

Unfortunately, many teacher’s think it is essential to teach a little condemnation because they feel that it is the solution for getting Christians not to sin again. But as we have seen Romans 8 clearly states that for the Christian there is now no condemnation.

Now we are free to live our lives from this revelation or go back to the law and condemnation or we can live from the spirit and live in grace constantly.

The key to understanding Romans 8 is that walking after or being in the flesh refers to being in Adam and walking in the spirit refers to being in Christ. If you are born again then the spirit of God dwells in you and you are in Christ. Therefore it is about living out your life, in your body, in Christ through the Spirit in you.

Once again the Church has taught condemnation into this passage, it has said, “When you are not sinning then you are walking in the spirit, but when you are sinning you are walking in the flesh!”  We need to understand that we could do fleshy things but that does not take us back to “being in the flesh.” Just like you cannot be in the flesh, and do spiritual things that could take you “bring in the spirit.” You have died to your old Adam nature birthed in the flesh and now you are raised to new life in Christ, in the spirit.

YOU ARE MARRIED TO CHRIST - Romans 7

 YOU ARE MARRIED TO CHRIST - Romans 7

“do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man.” - Romans 7 : 1-3

Paul in Romans 7 now explains and emphasizes that those who are in Christ, are now married to Christ and therefore, are dead to the law. Christ fulfilled the law at the cross and released us from its marriage contract and we are free to marry the love of our hearts, in a wonderful glorious new marriage of beauty, intimacy and adventure. There is a clear distinction that someone can only be in one or other and not both. You cannot just go to marry grace when you are already married to the law. 

So what does this mean? It means that we can never go back to being under the law. It means we can’t be in Christ and be under the Law. Unfortunately, many Christians are confused about this and try to relate to God through grace, but also adding the law into the ingredients! We can try to do this but according to Roman 7 we are in reality committing spiritual adultery. According to God we are now married to Christ, therefore the law has no bearing on our lives. In fact, the law is like a jealous ex-wife who tries to entice us away from Christ! It is this enticement that draws us into condemnation and tries to capture our hearts with guilt. The root cause of all spiritual adultery is condemnation. 

The Old Testament story of Isreal is about the law and the prophets proclaiming and pointing to Christ. They don’t point PAST Christ. Once we come into Christ then the law has done its purpose, we are released from the Law and come into a whole new way of life. Our new creation nature does not require the law because the new covenant is the fulfillment of the law. 

“But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve In newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.” Romans 7:6

We have come into a new position in Christ which has changed everything. Our spirit has been reborn and made righteous and given a new nature. This means that an external law acting as an external restraint, giving us external motivation, is no longer needed. Because now we have an internal motivation which is Christ living in us, with his nature in us and his righteousness given to us. This is the new and living way of the Spirit.

SLAVES TO RIGHTEOUSNESS - Romans 6 : 14-18.

“Being then made free from sin, you have becomes slaves to righteousness.” - Romans 6 : 18

This verse out of context can be completely misread. The response can be “ If I am declared free in Christ, I don’t want to go back to being a slave. I don’t want to exchange one set of slavery for another set of slavery!” No, you don’t! But you have to see that is wonderful being a slave to righteousness! Because righteousness has now become your new master and not sin. So for all time and eternity, you are in Christ and in righteousness. You are therefore not in Adam, in sin, and under the law but you are in Christ and in grace.

“For sin shall have no dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” - Romans 6:14

This declares that the consequences of sin and the judgment of sin no longer has dominion over you. Why? Because you are now in Christ and you are no longer in Adam. Therefore you are not under the dominion of sin anymore, you are under the dominion of righteousness. 

Once we have understood this amazing revelation, it becomes imperative that we do not put Christians back under a performance mindset. The truth of Christ is that when you are in the position with Christ in righteousness, even if you do keep sinning, big or little, that sin has no dominion over you. There would be no condemnation, no judgment, no separation from God, no withholding of blessings of God. Why? Because you are in Christ and therefore you have inherited all of Christ or to put it another way, you now live in the grace of God.

God's nature is in you, you have been transferred from living in Adam to living in Christ. Your spirit was made righteous and you were given a new nature, the God nature, his desire and encouragement to you is that you now walk in this nature and this nature becomes your daily experience. Your new spirit in Christ is empowered by a new position in Christ and it would be alien and strange to go back to that old place under the law where you were under the dominion of sin. 

It is the desire of God that you renew your mind to this amazing reality that you have died to your old inherited sin nature in Adam and have become a new creation in Christ in your new nature from God. To take every thought captive and live now from your new creation spirit man.

Wield His Victory

 Jesus came through for you before you were even born.

He won the victory for you before you were even born. He defeated the enemy at the cross and he has given all authority to you to live in His victory. 

You were created to reign.

Today, God is saying to you to rise up and wield His victory over your circumstances and situations. 

Don't accept things that have come into your life to rob you of your peace and burden you down with oppression. 

Christ has promised to never leave you. Christ will Never abandon you. You are never alone in Christ. He lives in you. You are a living temple of the Holy Spirit and God lives in you.

Every battle you face He has won. Every skirmish that comes your way He has won. Every ambush the enemy sets for you, Christ has won.

Today stand firm in the finished work of Christ. Stand firm in his victory. Stand firm in the peace, joy, goodness, kindness, love, righteousness and faith of God.

God has faith in you because Christ has won the victory. 

Today wield the victory of Christ in your life.

DEAD TO SIN - ALIVE TO CHRIST - ROMANS 6 : 1 - 13

 

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound ?” - Romans 6 :1

This is a prime verse that people read and take out of context. It becomes a stick to prod Christians. It gets interpreted to - “stop sinning, do all you can to try to stop sinning, if you don’t you are basically abusing grace.” But in context, it is not talking about the action of sinning. It is talking about living out of your sin nature in Adam and not in righteousness. It can be read, “Shall I continue under Adam so that the law might come and expose sin and keep exposing sin, so that more law is needed, then even more grace will be revealed to overcome the sin !“ Paul just says, “NO, God forbid, you cannot! It is impossible! You cannot live in a state of sin, if you have come out of Adam, and are in Christ.

It is impossible you cannot live in sin if you are now in righteousness. Now you must see that it is still possible to do sinful things but that does not make you a sinner or in sin. You are now seated in heavenly places in Christ and you are righteous and holy united with Christ. Paul is very emphatic. He declares, 

“For that is dead is freed from sin.” - Romans 6:7

The enchantment of condemnation and the law has caused us to completely be misdirected by trying to do something that in reality the Bible says has actually taken place. We either died with Christ or we did not! There is no continual, drawn out for years, dying with Christ. You are either dead or you are not!

“Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.” For in that he died, he died to sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. “Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. “ - Romans 6:11

Understand and believe the truth that you have died with Christ. Reckon it. Don’t try to make it as though it is true. Believe it because it is true. It is not believing that makes it true. It is true so believe it. You have died with Christ. Understand that you are either dead or you are not and if you died in Adam, your sin nature died too.

Adam or Christ - Romans Chapter 5

 

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” - Romans 5 : 19

Mankind became sinful through Adam. But, through Christ, we are made righteous. So when you were born into Adam you were born into sin. You had nothing to do with the consequences of what Adam did. You had no choice, you were born into it. You didn’t need to have faith to be a sinner, you were born a sinner not because you sinned but because Adam sinned. You inherited Adam's sin and all its consequences. 

Likewise, it was exactly the same when you were re-born into Christ. You were made righteous. You are imputed with the gift of righteousness. It was not your righteous behaviour. It was given to you as a free gift. You were made righteous. You received the grace of God in Christ and you inherited God's riches through Christ’s sacrifice. This means you are now not in Adam but In Christ and therefore as Christ is so now, are you! That is, every blessing in the heavenly realms is now yours In Christ based entirely on grace.

Understanding Grace

 UNDERSTANDING GRACE 

It is so very important that we understand what the gospel is ! And I mean by that simple phrase, what the good news of the new covenant is! There is a tendency within Christianity and Christian understanding to isolate verses and chapters in the Bible and build a theology and a belief system around these scriptures and take them out of context.

The prime example of this is the book of Romans, where the Apostle Paul, creates a framework that contains a sequence and flow of historical and theological insights that each verse should be understood within. When some verses are taken out of this framework they lose their context and they can create an incorrect understanding of the gospel.

The framework of the gospel is mainly found in Romans chapters 5,6,7 & 8. Understanding these 4 chapters is crucial to understanding grace and the gospel. 

These chapters, give a unique insight into the heart of the gospel. They explain to us that the earth contains only two groups of people. Those who are in the first Adam and those who are in the last Adam. Romans five to eight is the contrasting states of existence of living your life in and through the first Adam or through the last Adam.

Starting at Romans 5 we are introduced to the two Adams. It is a statement of the difference between those born into Adam and those re-born into Christ. The most astonishing revelation of this chapter is that you can do nothing to put yourself into either of these. You were born into Adam and you had nothing to do with that.   When we were re-born into Christ you had nothing to do with that except believe. 

Romans 6 carries on with this revelation and contrasts the two positions. It is here where very often confusion starts to enter our understanding if we take verses out of the context. This chapter is often quoted about “sinning” or “not sinning” or “doing righteous things” or “doing unrighteous things” . But in context of the passage it is explaining our position in life. That we are either in Adam and controlled by our sin nature or we are in Christ and controlled by our righteousness nature. This change of nature from sin to righteousness means that now “in Christ “ that it does not matter how many bad works we do, we can never be in the first Adam again. We are now in Christ and in his righteousness.

Romans 7 progresses the argument and shows the utter futility of going back to “The Law” to deal with unrighteousness. That to use the Law to deal with your old man in the first Adam is in fact Spiritual Adultery. The law is, in fact, a message of condemnation and when it is preached or practiced to try to impress God or earn his love and blessings it nullifies the grace of God and you bring yourself back under the weight and burden of condemnation.

Romans 8 is contrasting those that live “in the flesh” to those who live “in the spirit “, those who walk after the first Adam and those who walk in Christ. It is talking to us to renew our minds to the fact that we have died to the flesh and are now alive in the spirit. When we are in Christ we are now alive in the spirit and are free from the flesh and Adam.

This is the sequence and flow of the passage. If you are in Adam you are controlled by your old sin nature and in the flesh. But if you are in Christ you are now righteous, under grace and in the spirit. 

Exception