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to be honest, I’ve actually put off writing this post.  Romans 9 is probably one of the most difficult passages to read and interpret correctly.  I will do my best to give it justice.  Paul is actually writing in Romans 9 about the people of Israel.  remember, in the Old Testament, God chose Abraham and his children to be his own special people.  Paul’s argument in chapter 9 is this, God has hardened Israel and has chosen a new people for himself… a mixture of Jewish and non-Jewish people.  his argument of “election” (God choosing who receives His Mercy) here is actually an argument for why God chose to harden the hearts of the Jewish nation… “So his purpose in election might stand.”  Paul’s argument goes even further that just because you were of Israel’s nation doesn’t mean that you were a child of the promise.  There has always been one requirement: FAITH. So now God’s mercy is now shown to both Jews and non-Jews. The point is this: God is doing HIS WILL.  he may have to harden some to accomplish HIS WILL.  CASE IN POINT: pharaoh.  God hardened pharaoh’s heart to accomplish HIS WILL of allowing HIS PEOPLE to ultimately go free.  Israel would never have been free if God had not intervened in this way.  They never would have seen God’s power and love for them against the nation that held them captive.  It’s not a question of “Is God fair.”  It’s a question of “Is God Sovereign?”  

So Romans 10 is a response to the fact that Israel seems to be lost forever.  Paul says, “NO! we are all one in the same!  we all must believe in Jesus and what he did on the cross through faith. that is how we ALL are saved.”  and the rest of the chapter is a quick back and forth about “can Israel (the nation) be God’s people if they fully rejected Jesus as Lord and Messiah?”  the answer is actually in Romans 11. :-)

whew… okay, what did you see?

I absolutely love the first two verses of this chapter:  There is no condemnation for those who belong to Jesus.  Jesus has freed us from the power of sin and death.

In Jesus I find the ultimate freedom.  I know that I don’t have to be bound to trying to accomplish enough good in my life to try and eliminate the bad… a feat that I could never do and that would never even work.  God did what no one else could do:  He sent His Son to die in my place so I could be free to be with Him.  What an amazing gift.  

The rest of this chapter talks about what it means to live with the Holy Spirit as your guide.  Once you have received the gift of grace that Jesus offers through his death on the cross, the Holy Spirit of God comes to live in you and becomes your guide through life.  Read this chapter and discover how the Holy Spirit guides those who are followers of Jesus.

sorry that the first two are late… but let’s catch up.  

Romans 5 - one of my favorite chapters in Romans because Paul talks at length about how Jesus came to be the perfect version of what the first man, Adam, could not be.  Adam introduced sin and death to the world… Jesus introduced eternal life to the world.  what a brilliant way to see it!

Romans 6 - some people might think that b/c they are eternally saved by Jesus from the judgment of God that they can do whatever they please… even sin.  Paul lets us know that is DEFINITELY not the case.  Jesus came not only to save us from hell after life, but to save us from living like hell in this life.

Romans 7 - sometimes… if I’m completely honest, the last part of Romans 7 is my life:  what I want to do I don’t do b/c of sin.  I think that is one of the best ways to put the Christ follower’s experience.  But I love the interactive nature of the last statement: “who will save me from this?  Thanks to God for Jesus!”  

so this phrase stuck out to me in a huge way “Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  so faith = what I believe and how it causes me to live.  It’s one thing to “say” I believe something… it’s faith when I believe something and it affects my actions.  think about those old school trust falls (like in the movie “mean girls”)  faith doesn’t mean saying “I think that the people will catch me if I fall backwards.”  Faith means I actually allow my belief to change my actions.  my actions aren’t faith… but they are the result of true faith.  they are the test of faith.  Abraham heard from God, believed Him, and acted on that belief.  his actions were the proof of his belief.  Therefore, he believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  God made Abraham right with him and blessed him b/c of his faith.  So just so we understand this correctly:  Faith IS NOT belief + works.  FAITH = belief that affects my works.  The works are the evidence of faith.  So here is my question… do you have faith?

I’ll be explaining what I think on Romans 3 this weekend @ OSM.  what I’d really like to see is what you think.  so…. what did you see?  what did you understand?  What did you not understand?

thoughts from today’s reading:

judging someone else is a serious offense.  We need to love, not judge.

the law was never meant to be something to brag about.  

your parents don’t say, “YES!  AWESOME!  I AM GOING THE SPEED LIMIT” when they pass by the speed limit sign.  The sign is not their for them to brag… It is there to point out when they miss the mark.  The law is the same way…  When God gave mankind his laws… it was not for us to boast about how well we can keep them, it was just to show us how many times we mess up and how desperately we need Him.

what did you see today?

there are 2 things that stood out to me as I read chapter 1 this morning:

1) The Gospel is the power of God for Salvation to everyone who believes.  The Gospel.  what is it?  Gospel means “Good News.”  it is the good news that you and I no longer have to be separated from God because of sin.  It is the good news that we no longer have to look to a strict obedience to the law or ten commandments to somehow try to earn eternal life or merit favor with God.  It is the good news that someone (Jesus Christ) has taken our place and our punishment for our sins.  We now can have a restored relationship with God… the way that we were originally created to be with God.  It is that “good news” that is the power of God to bring about rescue for us.  it is the power of God for EVERYONE WHO WOULD BELIEVE.  

2) The evidence of God can be seen in His creation.  While many in our world want to try to explain that everything we see is here by random chance, the Bible explains to us that it is all here by design.  There is a cause to all you see.  God is the one who set all of this into motion.  He is the one who spoke it all into existence.  And we can see attributes of our creator when we look at his creation.  We see beauty, creativity, order, logic, complexity and simplicity, and many more things.  

Here is the question to answer for this week: what does creation tell you (personally) about God?  

next step: read the chapter for today and answer the question

for those who want to go deeper: come up with your own question to ask, or post about something else you learned through this chapter.

we just completed the 21 days of John challenge!  now we’d love to hear about your experience.  click on the link and take the survey.  it literally takes like 2 seconds and it’s anonymous.

I love Jesus’ interaction with Peter.  three times Peter denied him… three times Jesus asked him if peter loved him.  It was almost like for each time there was an offense there was a confession and forgiveness.  We need to learn to forgive like that.

The other thing that sticks out to me in this passage is that Peter once again jumps straight out of the boat to go to Jesus.  he doesn’t hesitate… he jumps.  I wonder how many of us would be like that?

today’s chapter is the MOST IMPORTANT chapter of the christian faith.  in fact, the apostle paul said this:

¹⁴And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. ¹⁵More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. ¹⁹If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  1 corinthians 15:14-19

so this chapter in John becomes the most unbelievable, yet the most foundational chapter of our Christian faith… Jesus has RAISED FROM THE DEAD.  Jesus victory over death did a couple of major theological things: 1) it proved that he was exactly who he said he was, 2) it proved that he had been given authority over death and now has the authority to grant that to those who follow him, 3) it legitimizes him over every other religious prophet or pundit in the world.

I also love the story of Thomas because, let’s all be honest and face the facts, we ALL DOUBT from time to time.  and notice how Jesus handles doubt: not with criticism or disappointment… but with proof and power.

take some time and celebrate your faith as you read.