do any of you write letters anymore? though i'm relatively young, letter writing was the main form of communication if you didn't want to pay for long distance phone charges. i remember childhood penpals, writing to grandma, aunts and uncles..now we have email. i think it's too easy, and causes communication to be undervalued. but that's for another post. paul wrote letters to a lot of churches during his ministry. we have records of them in the Bible - they are sometimes referred to as the epistles - along with some of the other letters written to churches by his contemporaries. what i love about reading the letters of paul is watching his thought process unfold. there is something almost unsettlingly human to me amidst the divine insight and wisdom in the words. so, i've been studying the book of romans this month, along with reading an awesome commentary (The New Testament Bible Knowledge Commentary by Walvoord and Zuck) which i borrowed from pastor chilly. i choose to read romans because i always get caught up in thinking about God's sovereignty, and chapters 9 thru 11 really focus on it. and not only did i get a fresh understanding of that section, but the whole book seemed to come alive to me this time through. i LOVE that about the Word. it is living and active and i am changed every time i open it up to read it. cool. here's a brief synopsis:
the first section of romans really focuses on God's ability to judge. the end of chapter 1 contains the familiar assertion that God has given all people opportunity to know who he is, "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his unseen power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what he has made, so that men are without excuse. "(1:20) man's rejection of God led to our spiral downward, as the Truth of God was traded for a lie, and God removed his had from men, "(giving) them over to shameful lusts." (1:26b)
all men are equally guilty of this sin, and therefore God alone can judge, because there is no sin in him.
then paul talks of a new righteousness through faith. "This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Chris to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." (3:22-24) Hallelujah!! though we are all under sin and judgement, our faith in Christ brings a righteousness from God. we are redeemed "freely by his grace" because of Christ. and all that is required is our faith in Jesus. paul goes on to talk about abraham's faith, believing God though he could not see where God was bringing him. abraham had faith under crazy circumstances - old and childless, he believed the God that told him that his wife would have a son. paul points out that, "it was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith." (4:13) in fact, we are all heirs of abraham because we share the same faith in God. abraham became the father of so many more than were descendants of him, all because he believed. and because i share that faith in God, i am made a descendant of abraham as well. how amazing! that God would do these great things for us, so undeserving.
the next few chapters offer different illustrations of our death to sin, and life in Christ. though adam death came into the world, and through Christ life returned. baptism's symbolism is explained in chapter 6, and we are told that since we died with Christ, we are alive also as he is alive. and since we have died to sin, sin is no longer our master. we are now a slave to righteousness, because of our faith. paul says, "But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness." (6:17-18)
he explains this idea further by using marriage as an illustration: "For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man. So, my brothers, you also died to the law though the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God." (7:2-4) because we have believed in Christ, we are released from the law and sin just as if we had died. and we are given a new life, just as Christ was raised from the dead to glorify God and bear fruit. i love the way God explains this through paul...whoa. paul finishes out the book (another 9 chapters) by talking encouraging his readers (the romans, and us) to take joy in the fact that we have been saved by grace, and to hold onto that hope though good and bad times. he also encourages the church to encourage the new believers among them, not causing anyone to stumble because of anyone's actions.
paul also talks about God's sovereignty and the election of Israel...which will be the subject of tomorrow's post, since this one has gotten quite lengthy. : )
| 
