Romans 5:12-21

Have you ever wished that you had the opportunity to do anything - that everything you saw as inadequate in yourself was no longer there - everything you struggled with - that you know prevents you from being what you hoped to be - is gone. Imagine everything you've ever done that has hurt people; that has caused damage to others and yourself - is gone - made right. All those times you wanted to say the right thing, be supportive and encouraging, but you chose to be cynical and discouraging - gone!

How can this happen? All the self help books say you can do this yourself and in trying many of these you're not any farther ahead. The conclusion is you can't do this. You need help from someone. Whatever went wrong in you is so much a part of you now that it is impossible to root it out on your own. It's a deadly disease that you can't stop. You need help from the outside.

The powerful message in this passage of Romans is that someone has done this for you. In fact so powerful was their work on your behalf that it has gone into the core of your being and fixed what was broken. Much like a software program that is corrupted, another program has eliminated the corruption.

"Adam's one sin brought condemnation upon everyone, but Christ's one act of righteousness makes all people right in God's sight and gives them life. Because one person disobeyed God, many people became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many people will be made right in God's sight." vv.18-19

In this sense, Jesus has done something to us. His work has struck the very core of every human being that has ever existed, exists now and will exist in the future. There is a definite sense in this chapter concerning how much more what Jesus has done affects us as we go on living in this world. In a world where there is the most remote chance that someone might do something "for" you, God Himself has taken steps to do something "to" you.

Paul again reinforces for the Roman believers how much this transformation of life that comes from believing and receiving Christ happens to us from the outside. We've had no hand in achieving it. It was virtually impossible. Only God could do this. This enforces for us today that we need to stop trying to clean ourselves up. Rooting out sin from our lives is like trying to operate on ourselves. It just doesn't happen. It's impossible. Sin has been rooted out for us.


Ask yourself these questions as you go about your week:


1. Do you still suffer anxiety over trying to be good enough?

2. What is a necessary step you need to take to accept what Jesus has done to you?

3. Are the people around me aware that God has relieved them of the anxiety of cleaning up their own life by having cleaned it up for them in Jesus?

4. How can we share with other people this great news in language and ways that they can understand?

Romans 5:1-11

Donald Miller in Searching for God Knows What says:

"I would imagine, then, that the repentance we are called to is about choosing one audience over another. Jesus says many times in the gospel that He knows the heart of man, and the heart of man does not have the power to give glory. I think Jesus is saying, 'Look, you guys are running around like monkeys trying to get people to clap, but people are fallen, they are separated from God, so they have no idea what is good or bad, worthy to be judged or set free, beautiful or ugly to begin with. Why not get your glory from God? Why not accept your feelings of redemption because of His pleasure in you, not the fickle and empty favor of man? And only then will you know who you are, and only then will you have true, uninhibited relationships with others." p.177.

The idea of "glory" is at times a misunderstood statement. I think that there are times we feel this term applies to Jesus in his "light suit" on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration. Actually, this term has to do with the fame a person, city or thing bears because of who or what it is. When read in this context, the glory or the fame that God is known for is His love for humanity. He is known for his grace. This is what He wanted Israel to communicate to all the nations around them: He is the God that lives with His people.

There is also a "glory" or "fame" that men and women bear. This fame is the capacity to love each other. Yet, for the fallen human race, what is famous among them is the distance created between them. Men and women are known more for alienating each other rather than loving each other. How did humanity get to this point?

Paul says in Romans 5:2:

"Christ has brought us into this place [right relationship with God] of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory!"

When we're connected to God, we naturally behave in a way that mirrors the love God has for humanity. Sharing in God's glory means that we - as men and women - are well known for our love and gracious acts toward one another. The reason humanity is not famous for this is because they're disconnected from God. The Roman believers showed their actual distance from God because of the way they viewed each other. With Gentile believers feeling superior to Jewish believers and Jewish believers retaliating by counteracting with their own sense of superiority, they're behaviour as God's community did not express to the world around them the glory of God.

When we put stock in who we are and take that confidence to express our commitment to God, we communicate a Christianity that is based on human behaviour not a loving God. The desire to do differently should be because of the following:

• Its destructive for us as God's community to behave in a way that is hurtful. It's not what we need as human beings. As men and women we need support and encouragement. We crave acceptance and belonging. God made us to live in community with each other. Our communities aren't called to be perfect but they're called to be real and to be loving. It's what we need and what those around us need.
• When we create a community that is hurtful and destructive it gives a fraudulent view of God to others. With this kind of behaviour characterizing who we are, we prevent people from connecting with who God really is.

It takes care and love to come to a place as a community where people are built up, loved and supported. The world needs more communities like this. There needs to be a place where people can go where they feel accepted and honoured for who they are - regardless of how messy their lives are. This is the kind of community that God desires us to be.

Questions:

1. Take some time to dream about what the ideal community of God should look like?

2. Once you've done question No.1, critique it. Take it apart. Test it using the passage for this week to make sure its biblical and consistent with God's heart.

3. What is the most important thing that people should know when they visit our communities [I mean our church but church is essentially the people]

4. Think of evidences of "glory" in our world that we as God's community can point to as evidence of God working in our world.

Romans Chapter 4:1-25

This is a picture of Mount Hermon, the most northern part of Israel. Historically, its the place that God took Abraham. From this vantage point, you can see as far as the Mediterranean Sea and South toward the land of Egypt.

God told Abraham that all that he saw with his eyes from this vantage point would be populated by his descendents. The impression is a family of unprecedented proportions. In fact, this family was not just confined to the Hebrew people [there were no 'Hebrew people' yet] but Abraham, a descendent of Adam, is given the news that he will be the father of many nations; in fact the father of all who will trust in God. It is this that Paul emphasizes in Romans chapter 4 to the Gentile and Jewish believers in Rome. What these two groups did not keep in the forefront was that they were part of this large family envisioned by Abraham long ago as promised by God. Rather they saw themselves as separate, far from the same family, and no where near being brothers and sisters but actually going down the path of becoming enemies.

Its a dangerous thing to create divisions between people that God never intended. To boast in one's own identity over against another is to deny the fact that we are fellow human beings who belong to a much larger family than we ever imagined; a family where all gather around God. I saw first hand the results of such division when I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. The reason the holocaust happened was because Germans believed that they were of a different sort, even a different race all together than the Jews. This sentiment turned into hatred which turned into the most terrible genocide that we have witnessed in the modern era.

When we turn to God and respond to Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection by putting our trust in Him, we become aware that we belong to a family of universal proportions. When we look on others we no longer see them [should not see them anyway] with a divisiveness or sense of superiority but rather a sense of brotherhood. When you think of what God promised Abraham, you realize that God's goal is to gather everyone to himself. Jesus is the gathering point, the center for such a universe. He is the one who has identified with every human being on earth. It is our place as members of this family to reach out to others regardless of their background. In essence, no one is excluded from this family. Jesus died for the human race. In this sense everyone belongs, the problem is that there are those that do not realize they belong. They keep searching and groping in the dark for a sense of identity. It is only at the feet of Jesus that we all realize we are part of God's family.

As you venture out this week to your jobs, schools, and neighbourhoods, remember that those you encounter are a part of this family. They may not know it. If they don't, you have the wonderful privilege of introducing them. The one thing we can share with them is that God has given them the privilege of being fruitful and multiplying. Everyone has a God-given right to fulfill this promise, the very promise that God gave to humanity in the beginning. This promise is reconfirmed by God with Abraham and rescued and recovered in Jesus.

Questions this week:

1. Why do we create divisions in church?

2. What is God's view of the world and people in it?

3. What challenges do you face in terms of looking at everyone equally?

4. What are ways that we can bridge the divisions between people in our culture and in our world?

Romans 3:1-8

"Let God be true and every man a liar." Rom. 3:4

I don't know about you, but I have a habit of taking myself too seriously. Sometimes I get caught up in what I say and do, so much so, that I can be in someone else's face when they let me down or don't follow through on what they promise. I feel so ignored and hard done by. I'm reminded by Jesus that when I point the finger at someone else's imperfection, there is a glaring imperfection in my own life that I need to consider first before I start judging others.

In the first two chapters of Romans, Paul has been drawing the believers of Romans into understanding that the one and only thing they can truly boast in or be confident of exists outside of themselves. Boasting or putting confidence in who we are is a dangerous thing. It causes us to take ourselves too seriously; even to the point of putting ourselves in the position of judges that only God has. In these first verses of chapter three, Paul reminds the believers in Rome that God's faithfulness does not depend on what they do or don't do. The truth of all things hinges on who God is, not on who we are. When truth is placed in the trust of fallen human beings, it is no longer truth. In fact it turns into something less authentic and much more vicious.

I'm in Israel this week on tour with Joe Amaral and today I'm crafting this blog from a hotel in Jerusalem. We visited the Western Wall [aka Wailing Wall] in the old city of Jerusalem. Three different people and religions converge on this site. Geographically, there is a Jewish quarter to the west of the wall, Arabic quarter to the north of the wall and a Christian quarter to the east of the wall. All of these quarters look to the site as a significant holy place. All of them feel they have the truth as to the origins of the site and to who it belongs - yet it has created such a tension between the groups in terms of fighting and war over the recent past. When you think about these three groups, they are all the children of Abraham and so all have a connection to God yet they are adamant against each other that they have a the truth over and against the other.

How much suffering and pain would have been avoided in the land if all people realized that only God holds the truth and all need to relinquish this authority to Him? How much suffering would the Roman believers have avoided if they realized that only God holds the truth and they need to relinquish the authority of that truth to Him and not find it in their lineage, color or way of following Jesus. How much suffering and pain could be avoided in our own lives if we would relinquish the authority of truth to God alone and not find it in our own opinions, knowledge, status and position in life?

Paul mentions in this passage as well, those who may then use this truth of God holding all truth as a way of continuing in sin. The attitude is that if God is responsible for everything, then we don't need to be responsible. We can live any way we want because God will always demonstrate grace and mercy to us. Paul says, "No Way!" This attitude will actually create more distance from God. God having all authority and holding all truth does not exempt us from being responsible to honour God for who he is and what he has done by remaining in relationship with Him. Put it this way, if God loves us like crazy, why would we want to jeopardize that love by acting foolishly and hurtfully toward him by our behaviour. Would we want to jeopardize our loving relationships with our spouses, parents, kids and close friends by our foolish and hurtful behaviour? The last thing any of use would want to do is hurt the ones we love and jeopardize our relationships. Its the same with our relationship with God. We need God in our lives. The Jews live their lives orienting their lives toward God. As believers we must do the same if we want to hear His voice in our lives.

Questions:

1. Do you take yourself too seriously?
2. In your last argument with someone, did you try to win the argument or the person?
3. How do we as a community of believers, take ourselves too seriously?
4. What are the things that we need to leave in God's hands?
5. Who is the one that works change in people?