Romans 3:9–26

Summary:
howbeit the law convinces them also of sin;
therefore no flesh is justified by the law;

3:9. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
3:10. As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one;
3:11. there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.
3:12. They have all gone out of the way; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one.”
3:13. “Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit”; “The poison of asps is under their lips”;
3:14. “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
3:15. “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
3:16. destruction and misery are in their ways;
3:17. and the way of peace they have not known.”
3:18. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
3:19. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.

3:20. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
3:21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
3:22. even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
3:23. for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
3:24. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
3:25. whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
3:26. to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Comments:

My first impression at reading this passage is, ‘what a depressing message’. Nobody, absolutely no one can enter into God’s kingdom. All of us, even the most righteous, whether we actually are, or think we are, nobody gets to heaven. But there is a ray of hope. Hold that idea for the moment.

Paul, right from the start restates his claim that the Jews, considered God’s chosen and righteous people, are on the same footing with gentiles, who represent all the ungodly people of the world. When it comes down to it, nobody understands, really. Gentiles came from those who fell away from God from the start. Even the Jews had their slow decline and more readily clung to gods of the world over the true God. Everybody is guilty.

To go into detail, there are those who say things that are bitter, poisonous, and utterly opposite of the message from God. Those people are quick to do the wrong things. Destruction, misery, behavior that creates anything except for peace is what they do. There is no respect, or fear of God. For such people who live in a world ruled by physical law, the laws of the old testament define their only end.

Old testament laws only define law and punishment, there is never a way out. No way to escape death and the grave.

Here comes that ray of hope.

Prophets foretold of a new way that would come. Drum roll please…
Romans 3:22. even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;

Through faith in Jesus Christ, we are made right with God.

We all have sinned, but by having a faith, a belief in Jesus, we are saved. Belief about what? He frely gave his life. He is the one and only, single sacrifice that atones us. He hits the reset button of life and puts us back on square one. Even to those who say and do those utterly deadly, poisonous things that were mentioned.

Here’s a big word for the day: propitiation. It means something like, that he paid the gratuity. Still confused? When you go to a restaurant, you pay the price for the meal. To show your appreciation of the good service and attention you may have recieved, you pay a tip, or gratuity to the waiter. That tip comes from your desire. You freely give it and it makes the full payment for your meal.

Don’t you hate it when a restaurant builds the tip in? They make you pay the gratuity whether you want to or not. They decide how valuable their service is. It takes out of your hands to honor the waiter as you see fit. There are times, when I have been forced to contribute to poor service by being forced to pay a tip in this way. There are a few times when the waiter has been short changed and deserves more, but the management has decided to set the rate to force me to pay. The point, a forced tip, is no gratuity.

Jesus paid the price so completely, with so much overflow, that all people are covered. Still, some won’t take part in his final kingdom because they refuse his price. There will be some people absent at that time because of their choice to reject the idea that he paid their price as well.

Romans 1:18–32

Summary:
God is angry with sin.
What were the sins of the gentiles.

 1:18.  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,
 1:19.  because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
 1:20.  For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

 1:21.  because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
 1:22.  Professing to be wise, they became fools,
 1:23.  and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.
 1:24.  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,
 1:25.  who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
 1:26.  For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
 1:27.  Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
 1:28.  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
 1:29.  being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,
 1:30.  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,
 1:31.  undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;
 1:32.  who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

Comments:

God is mad. What makes him so mad? Well, in simple words, when people act in ways that are ungodly and hide the truth.

Hey, what happened to all this forgiveness and Jesus taking away all our sin stuff? Truth? is there a real truth? Truth is just relative, right? God gave everybody the way to understand truth and what is right. I don’t have to tell you that certain things that happen to you make you happy, and others make you upset. I don’t have to tell you that certain acts done to you are fair or unfair. That is just built in. Hardwired into our genes, so to speak. A mark of the fingerprints of our creator, to put it another way.

Problems set in when we stop looking at the big picture and take the focus from God, the real center attraction, and place it on ourselves. It would be like deciding that the earth really doesn’t revolve around the sun afterall. Hey, most of the population has never been off this planet, how do we really know that the things astronomers tell us are true? The sun and moon rise and set around the earth. At least thats the way it appears, so it must be true… right?

Let’s get a little more selfish. As I walk down the street, the earth passes beneath my feet, as opposed to me moving across it. At least that is the illusion I get. As I approach a door, somebody throws it out and nearly knocks me down. They did that on purpose. They waited until I was right there and they’re out to get me. No matter that there is no window in the door and they had no way of knowing what, if anything might be on the other side. Hmm… So now the world no longer revolves around the sun, but the univers converges on my own little space. How selfish is that? What a total distortion of the real, absolute truth. Yet we all do it to some degree. Admit it.

To be honest with ourselves, we have the ability to recognize this real truth, and the right things that God would like us to be doing. To ignore that fact is to be like the people in this passage who make themselves wise. They try to reinvent God. It’s talking about idols, but any reinvention of God applies to trading the incorruptable real God, for any, lesser convenient idea that suits our whims at the moment.

OK, we don’t have idols anymore, in the sense of the Biblical times. We still have objects that we invest large amounts of time in. We can spend extra time working to escape from our daily grief or personal sadness. Keeping busy keeps our mind too busy to think about those problems at home, or elsewhere in our lives. Over indulging in a hobby, boat, car, computer, or some other object distracts from problems that need our attention. Trying to escape in substances like drugs or alcohol go beyond fun or leisure and tear lives apart. What do you invest your time to seek relief from the daily unpleasantness? Bingo! There’s your idol. That’s your god that you worship. Is it something that is not the God?

God is mad about it. But do you know what? He lets us keep doing what we please. Besides being morrally wrong, there are certain physical consequences. Continue in a bad habit long enough and the body pays a price. Disease can be passed along, especially certain sexually transmitted ones. Abuse the body with foreign chemicals like alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and eventually, important organs start to break down. Run hard enough and long enough and your body will simply shut down in exhaustion. I think you probably get the idea. God lets us do anything we like, but to keep on his good side, we need to stop and realize what we are doing. We need to ask, “Is what I am doing giving glory to God?” If it is, keep on keeping on. Be real. Don’t try to rationalize your excuses. You’re not only lying to yourself, but to God. He knows and so do you.

OK, you still don’t get it? Paul goes on to give a laundry list of bad behaviors including sexual ones, but many others. I’m sure you can find one that fits you. I know my toes have been stepped on by this list.

Just because Jesus died to pay for our sins, is no reason to continue in them. It is our faith and right lifestyle that makes us a child of God, not a legal check list of what we can get away with. None of us is perfect. Our sins will continue until the day we die, but set your mind on things of God’s nature. Dwell on the ways we can use our natural environment for his purpose, not to abuse for ourselves.

Hebrews 10:1-18; 11:1-3: 12:1-3

Summary:
The weakness of the law sacrifices.
The sacrifice of Christ’s body once offered,
for ever hath taken away sins.
What faith is.
An exhortation to constant faith, patience, and godliness.

 10:1.  For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
 10:2.  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purged, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
 10:3.  But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
 10:4.  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
 10:5.  Therefore, when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me.
 10:6.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure.
 10:7.  Then I said, `Behold, I have come in the volume of the book it is written of Me to do Your will, O God.’ ”
 10:8.  Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the law),
 10:9.  then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.” He takes away the first that He may establish the second.

 10:10.  By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
 10:11.  And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
 10:12.  But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God,
 10:13.  from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool.

 10:14.  For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
 10:15.  And the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
 10:16.  “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,”
 10:17.  then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
 10:18.  Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

 11:1.  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
 11:2.  For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
 11:3.  By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

 12:1.  Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and  the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
 12:2.  looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 12:3.  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Comments:

The law, specifically the requirements for sacrifices, are a shadow of the true sacrifice. The old sacrifices had to be repeated every year, and never removed sins. At best, all the sacrifice could do is to remind each person of their continuous sin. God doesn’t really care for the sacrifice, but for obedience. To be more obedient, is to require less sacrifice. Jesus is the only true sacrifice that can totally remove sin.

Consider some differences in sacrifices. Animals, created and imperfect beings themselves, had to be prepared in a special way. They died an honorable and respectable death, and any remains returned to the earth to decay in the usual way. Jesus, a created but perfect being, died in the lowest, most inconsiderate and disrespectful form of death. When his sacrifice was made though, his body came back to life. Not ever seeing decay, or returning to earth. He was seen by men and later was seen to ascend into the clouds. He returned both physically and spiritually to heaven. He is there now, waiting for the day when he can return to earth and set up his kingdom.

In just one sacrifice, Jesus removed all the sins and shortcomings of all humans. More than all the centuries of animal sacrifice that just had no power at all. When the laws of God stay written on our hearts,and in our minds, we are his. Our sin is forgiven and remembered no more. In a single word, faith.

Faith is what it takes to prove those unseen things. Scientists search for what is called a ‘God Particle’. Some shred of evidence in our DNA, genes, or some sub atomic piece of material that can point to and say this unknown thing here is what God is. This is where we all came from. I have big news, there is no God particle. God made the particles. Our hope is that the unseen, spirit God exists, and it is faith that puts substantial evidence to that. The old time Bible characters knew and understood this point. Though we weren’t there at creation, we can know what happened. An unseen creator made all the seeable, touchable things that we know as our universe.

The Bible documents a list of people of faith whose stories are based on trusting in an invisible God, of his unseen power over our observable world. Just know and accept that God is God, sin is sin, and get busy living the life that God has planned for you. With Jesus as our example, we can endure hardship. Gain strength for your soul in him. Jesus saw past the small picture, and the tragedy of his death, and did it for the joy that awaits for a much longer period of time. He made himself low for a little while, before returning to his throne to reign over all his kingdom.

God is spirit, we are physical. It is human nature to have a need to prove a thing. This yet another reason that a real, physical man, Jesus was sent into our world. A tangible proof of God and his plan. His spiritual laws, put into physical demonstration. A way to get a small glimpse of the kind of spirituality that awaits in his kingdom, and desired place for us. Sometimes we think if we just do something, the result will be good enough. The only to achieve a spiritual result is beyond the ability of any person in our physical world. It takes Jesus, and his payment to make up the difference.