Making Sense of Pain

Romans 8:26,27
This process produces a weakness in us that causes us to blindly cry out to God. But we are not alone in this. God's powerful Spirit knows us in the deepest recesses of our hearts. He also knows exactly Where the Father is headed with us. Thus, He can turn our groans into useful requests aligned with our loving Father's plan

A Universe in Labor

Romans 8:18-25
Our good Father has a plan to put this entire universe at risk. He has immersed us all in a process of corruption and decay in the hope that it will give birth to a new order of freedom and glory breaking us free from the slavery of sin and death. But keep in mind childbirth is never easy. There is groaning and pain and suffering involved. And since the infusion of God's Spirit in us has started to bear fruit in us we groan in anticipation too. But there is also the joy of hope that it will all soon be over. So use this time of hoping to learn perseverance.

Daddy!!

Romans 8:12-16
So, you see, our obligations to the flesh are all gone. Our flesh is connected with the old realm of death and every time we try to live by it we step back into that painful treacherous world and start to experience death again. Then in desperation we yield to the Spirit, put to death the deeds of the body, and start to live again. Now we are back on track and led by God's Spirit recognizing we are God's children with with all the pleasures, rights, and privileges that come with that position. There is no fear in this relationship. The spirit of slavery from the past life is gone. We are adopted to Father God by His Spirit and we innocently cry out with arms outstretched, "Daddy!!". From deep inside His new Spirit within us says, "That's right. You're My child now."

From Obsession to Possession

Romans 8:1-11
This way out begins when we realize that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This new life of the spirit will set us free from the power of sin and death. Our weak and vulnerable flesh was not helped by law but God sent His Son in the image of our sinful flesh. He was condemned and paid for our sins in the flesh. So now all the requirements of the law have already been met for us. We no longer walk according to fleshly desires but according to His Spirit. Fleshly people are obsessed with fleshly primal urges but spiritual people yield to the promptings of God's Holy Spirit who now possesses them. A fatal obsession with ourselves results in hostility to God because it opposes God, His order, and everything He stands for but yielding to His life-giving Spirit within us produces a joyful life of peace. We must make a distinction here between those fleshly people who are not possessed by God's Spirit who don't belong to Him and You who have this Dynamic Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, Who now lives in you and powerfully gives your dead body the same kind of life He gave Christ.

The Cycle of Wretchedness

Romans 7:15-25
Here's how the process works: First I am doing the very things I hate, not what I would like to do and I don't understand why. Though I long to follow that good law something deeper is controlling me. That thing is sin. So I see that my flesh is shot through with sin. I have this spiritual longing to do good but wind up practicing the very evil that I hate. It's as if sin takes on a life of it's own. So I conclude that I want to follow God's law one moment and the next thing I know my body wages war on what I know to be right. I am a wretched prisoner to a body that belongs to the realm of sin and death. Now that I realize what a hopeless situation I am in I start looking outside of me for hope. I can now say, "Thank you God. You have provided a way out through Jesus who you've designated to take over my life.

Time Bomb

Romans 7:7-14

This might lead us to think that law is sin. No, not at all. In fact, I myself would never have come to a knowledge of sin except through law. I thought I had my life under control until I realized the law said, "You shall not covet." That's when sin got a foothold in my life. It produced in me an obsession with every kind of lust imaginable. Before this sin had no power. Sin lay dormant in me waiting for an opportunity but when the commandment became alive to me those sinful desires took on a life of their own. They deceptively used that law to produce in me a painful shameful death. I can't blame laws commands and rules for this. There is nothing wrong with them. No, its the sin that was always there in me. God must use this process to awaken us to the fact that there is plenty of sin hiding within us. He uses this spiritual law to continually show us our bondage to sin.

What a Jerk!

Romans 7:1-6

Now let's look at this from a legal point of view. The law only has jurisdiction over the living. For instance, a married woman is legally bound by law to her husband but if he dies she no longer has any obligation to him. If, while he was living she joined herself to another man she would legally be an adulteress but when her husband dies she is free from the law and can live with whoever she chooses. In a similar way, friends, you, through the body of Christ died to the law so that you might rise from the dead and be joined to Him so we might bear fruit for God. This death and resurrection were necessary because of the effect this old "husband" had on our hearts. He brought out the worst in us and since we were living in a realm of death only death could result but we are dead to the law and it's demands. We live a fresh spiritual life now and not in an oppressive legal system.

Eternal Life Starting Now

Romans 6:19-23

Of course, being human it's hard to understand how powerful this slavery is. Back when you were a slave to sin you were kept from the freedom of righteousness. And what good did that slavery do you? When we look back we are ashamed of those things and their destructive power in our lives. But God has liberated us from sin's mastery and power and you now gladly submit to God as your new master. This fruitful relationship is having just the opposite effect; putting us back together and giving us an eternal life. Sin only produces destruction in us but God graciously gives us Christ Jesus as our new master and along with Him His powerful vibrant eternal life.

I'm No Zombie

Romans 6:15-18
And why would we want to sin any longer in this new wonderful life? I suppose you could tell yourself you are still a slave and listen from this voice from the grave telling you to do evil things from this zombie world of your past. Or you can recognize what you are in this present life of freedom and righteousness. Now that's something you can put your heart into. And when you do, the natural result is going to be all kinds of good things happening on the inside and flowing out in what you do and say on the outside.

"Access Denied"

Romans 6:12-14
Your slavery to sin is over. Don't listen to it. Don't give sin access to the members of your body for destructive means but gladly present yourselves to the God who raised you from the dead and offer Him your body as His fruitful tools. You are dead to that slavemaster of sin and the law that empowers it. Your new life is a powerful gift.

The Promise of Death

Romans 6:1-11
We might say then, "If this grace is so powerful then let's keep sinning and give it more to work with." No, that will never do! Remember we have died to sin. We don't live in that realm anymore. Surely you know your baptism symbolized your death with Jesus Christ. You were buried with Him and left the old life. Then in an explosive glorious act the Father raised Him up with you in tow so that you too might live a completely new kind of life. It's like once we are entangled with Him in His death there's no stopping the process. We become inseparable from Him in His resurrection and we become aware that our old self is crucified with Him, that our sinful body is done for, and that our slavery to sin is over-Dead men don't sin! Of course, along with Christ we don't stay dead. We are raised to a new kind of life with Him. That realm of death could kill Him one time and can no longer control Him because He lives with God in His realm now. So you need to think of yourselves as in Christ, dead to sin, and alive to God.

Final Nail in the Coffin

Romans 5:12-21
Adam sinned and put all humanity under the administration of sin and death. This is evident in the fact that everyone sins. Even before the law was given to Moses and the terms and condemnations were codified death reigned. We have an opposite and more powerful parallel in Jesus. His one act of righteousness was just the beginning of God's pouring out of an unlimited gift of grace on all of mankind which would reverse all the condemnation and judgment which resulted in unrighteousness and put the final nail in the coffin of the reign of sin and death through the much more effective rule and reign of grace.

Romans 5:1-11
So, now by believing that Jesus our Lord by God's plan has completely justified us we have peace with God. Through our belief in Jesus we now have a new position of grace and a new attitude of grateful participation in all that God is and all that He is doing. We can even joyfully dive into the troubles of life armed with the knowledge that God is using it to teach us to persevere, to prove our character, and to give us a confident hope that comes from all His love which He has poured into our hearts through His Holy Spirit. All this results as it dawns on us that at the point of our greatest need and ungodly desperation Christ died for us. I mean, why should anyone die for someone else? I suppose you might be able to find a situation where someone would die for a "truly righteous" person. But even that isn't the case here. No, God played out His love on us while we were sinners by Christ's death on our behalf. If that's the case and as we now stand justified through His blood He saves us from the wrath of God. For if, while we were enemies God reconciled us through the death of His son how much more now that nothing any longer stands between us will He save us in His life. The result of all this is an uncontainable inner joy and peace with our God which comes from our reconciliation with Him through Jesus Christ.