iCrucified

I am posting some of these thoughts over on the blog for my home church while our congregation reads together through the New Testament Scriptures. I wanted to have a permanent link to my own blog, so I’m posting here too. This will be a multi-part post over the next couple days, so feel free to read along and share your thoughts for or against.

“…suppress truth by their wickedness” (Romans 1:18)

“…they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like” (Romans 1:21)

“They traded the truth about God for a lie…” (Romans 1:25)

“…they worshipped the things God created instead of the Creator himself” (Romans 1:25)

It is easy for us to point the finger at “the other guy” about now. Most of us in the Christian world would not consider ourselves to be included in the audience that Paul refers to in the passages above. We’re good. We know Jesus. We accepted His free gift of salvation; we said so in a prayer. We go to church. We own a Bible. We say grace at the table and occasionally volunteer in a service project…when we have time and it doesn’t interrupt the schedules of our lives. Paul says to us; “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse!” (Romans 2:1). If that statement is not enough to rattle us “good knower’s of God’s word,” Paul writes the following words to the Roman Jews (I really think these words can be/should be applied to us Christians in 21^st century North Amercia):

You who call yourselves Jews are relying on God’s law, and you boast about your special relationship with him. You know what he wants; you know what is right because you have been taught his law. You are convinced that you are a guide for the blind and a light for people who are lost in darkness. You think you can instruct the ignorant and teach children the ways of God. For you are certain that God’s law gives you complete knowledge and truth.  Well then, if you teach others, why don’t you teach yourself? You tell others not to steal, but do you steal? You say it is wrong to commit adultery, but do you commit adultery? You condemn idolatry, but do you use items stolen from pagan temples? You are so proud of knowing the law, but you dishonor God by breaking it. No wonder the Scriptures say, “The Gentiles blaspheme the name of God because of you.” (Romans 2:17-24)

Question: “Why don’t we live above the bondage of sin?”

Answer:    ”We struggle with disbelief, lack of faith, and pleasing self.”

Paul lays out in beautiful detail God’s plan of reconciliation for man in the letter to Romans chapters 3-5 but it is chapters 6-8 that really express the magnificent reality of what the reconciliation means through the lens of Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Sin has been defeated. Death has been defeated. Man is invited to share in Christ’s Victory and become reconciled to God. Do we believe this? If yes, why do we continue to follow the sinful nature of self? If we have died to self, in Christ, why do we continue to serve an old nature? Let’s look at some of the claims of Paul in chapter six of Romans.

• Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. (Romans 6:2-4)
• We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. (Romans 6:6-7)
• Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. (Romans 6:12-16)

What is our response to these statements? Next, our thoughts continue with commentary from Romans 7-8…