Righteousness or Religiosity?

 

Mark wrote his gospel to tell people about Jesus’ ministry. He did it by first showing Jesus’ power and authority. Mark showed this by telling of Jesus’ baptism, forty-days in the wilderness, succeeding over Satan’s temptations, calling men to follow Him, casting out demons, teaching in the synagogues, and healing people. Through Mark chapter 1, Jesus did not meet any overt challenges to Himself. From chapter two, the religious leaders began challenging Him outright.

In Mark 2:1-3:6, Mark used a teaching method called a chiasm. Because the people learned orally, teaching this way made for easier remembrance. The style used a step method of A, B, C, B’, A’. A and A’ tell about Jesus' healing people. B, C, and B’ relay Him teaching about and using food as an illustrative tool. The middle and last stories, C and A’, emphasize the main point. As Mark taught each level of the chiasm, the people would understand better the main point of the teaching. They would learn about Jesus’ authority and power. The people would learn more and learn to believe He is Deity.

The lesson relayed in the Bible study titled “The Standard” explains Jesus is the bridegroom. Jesus taught the religious leaders that His disciples do not fast when the Groom is with them. Only in the Old Testament does God use the analogy of Himself as the Groom. Jesus took this title when the Pharisees challenged Him about His disciples not fasting like they did. This teaching is the central one of this chiasm because in it, Jesus explains He is God in a way the Pharisees, who were learned men, would recognize and understand.

This lesson comes from Mark 2:23-28. Through this third teaching moment, Jesus instructs people using food for illustrative purposes. The Pharisees openly challenged Him in this retelling of Jesus’ meet with them.

The Setting

And it happened that He was passing through the grain fields on the Sabbath, and His disciples began to make their way along while picking the heads of grain. (Mark 2:23 [NASB])

This verse begins by telling the hearers and readers, “And it happened.” What happened? Mark sets the stage. He leads his audience to set their focus and pay attention to what would be said in this passage. Mark does this by aiming people on the person and occurrence coming up in his retelling of history.

Mark said, “And it happened that He (Jesus) was passing through the grain fields.” Many people, if they are walking somewhere, they will try to take the quickest route. Sometimes that meant they walked through another person’s property. We readers might think that is why the disciples and Jesus walked through a field of grain, because it was quicker. Yet, often, the destination was not the main purpose for Jesus doing what He did. Many times, the journey was more important than, or just as important as, the end point. The disciples may have thought Jesus took them through the grain field because it was quicker, but Jesus knew the Pharisees looked for a way to find fault with Him. Jesus wanted to meet the Pharisees. He wanted each person to believe in Him and receive salvation. This was not an “Uh oh, we’ve been caught moment,” but a planned meeting by Jesus.

Besides the meeting being intentional, let’s consider another matter. In this verse, we notice the disciples picking heads of grain. They did not pick them to harvest the grain for the landowner. The disciples picked the grain to quench their hunger.

Mark made one other point to set the scene for Jesus’ discussion with the Pharisees. Jesus and His disciples walked through the grain field on the sabbath day. They did not walk to go to the synagogue in Mark’s retelling in this verse. They may have already left or were going to the synagogue. Mark does not give us that information. The day of the week was important in this story about Jesus’ ministry. The sabbath day was the focus.

Mark recalled pertinent details for his readers and hearers. He relayed Jesus, and the disciples walked through a grain field on a sabbath day. The disciples plucked heads of grain. The Pharisees laid in wait to catch Jesus and His disciples. What would be the lesson for the listeners?

The Challenge

The Pharisees were saying to Him (Jesus), “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (Mark 2:24 [NASB])

The Pharisees never seemed far from Jesus. They boldly approached Jesus with their accusation couched in a question. These men scrutinized Him and His disciples so they could confront and accuse Him. When people want to accuse someone of doing wrong, it does not take much scrutinizing to find a fault. Each person is a sinner, after all.

The Pharisees felt their job was to point out a person’s sins so the person could make amends with God. Their idea of holiness came from a skewed interpretation of God’s intent of His laws. God gave His laws, statutes, and commands to lead people to Him, not to drive a wedge between Him and them.

The religious leaders had created 633 laws for the Israelites to live by, based on God’s laws. Instead of making it easier for people to live godly lives, it created a caste system of sorts. The people who publicly lived the laws obviously were holy, according to the religious leaders. To appear holier than the common people, the Pharisees, scribes, and rabbis prayed aloud on the streets and in the city gates. They fasted twice a week instead of on the only day of the year God required. These religious leaders publicly repented with ashes and loud prayers for people to see and hear them.

The only use the Pharisaical laws gave was to create a sense of holiness, which people call religiosity. Doing religious actions do not lead to holiness. Works do not save a person from their sins. They do not convince God a person is holy enough to redeem. Yet, for the Pharisees, the laws they created served a purpose. It showed their pseudo-holiness, a lack of righteousness.

With this mindset, of course, the Pharisees would challenge Jesus. They saw Him as a threat since He daily gained followers. If Jesus became great in people’s minds, people might give fewer offerings to the synagogues and temples. They would be less inclined to follow and obey the religious leaders. The religious leaders would lose stature in the nation.

With this understanding, the Pharisees waited for Jesus and His disciples to make a mistake. To them, plucking grains of wheat on the Sabbath was not lawful. The Pharisees considered their actions and opinions made the sabbath day revered. How they lived—what they said and did—mattered more than the purpose God set aside for the day. Their Pharisees showed the intentions of their hearts with their question to Jesus. Actions determined a sabbath day’s purpose, according to the Pharisees.

Notice, the Pharisees did not say the men plucking grain from another man’s field was wrong. What they pointed out was that they plucked grain on the sabbath day. In Deuteronomy 5:12-15, no work was allowed on the Sabbath. That permitted people to keep the sabbath day holy. Holy means consecrated by God and set apart for Him. The focus of the sabbath day was to keep one’s mind set on God. The focus was not work was disallowed. For the Pharisees, the sin was plucking the grain on a Sabbath.

Is plucking working? Is plucking to satisfy hunger work? Many Old Testament passages teach about this topic. Each deals with “working” on the sabbath day. Is plucking a few heads of grain reaping? This takes us back to the intention of the Ten Commandments and, particularly, the fourth commandment. The fourth commandment states, “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” (Exodus 20:8). The intention of this commandment, according to the wording, is to keep the sabbath day holy. God’s nature defines holiness. For people to keep the sabbath day holy, they must focus on God and set themselves apart only for His purposes. The purposes of a person for the sabbath day sets it apart in their lives as being for him or herself or for God. Those purposes originate in the heart, take form in the mind, and can cause each person to act for God or him or herself.

What were the disciples’ intentions for plucking grain that sabbath day? Did they intend to harvest the grain, or did they intend to quench their hunger as they followed Jesus, the Son of Man? What were the intentions of the Pharisees that day? Did they intend to help a person realign to be in God’s will or to accuse a person so they themselves seemed more holy? What was the intention of Jesus that day? If He meant to catch the Pharisees by setting Himself and His disciples in their path, He succeeded. If He meant to help them see Him as the Messiah, He tried, but the Pharisees' hearts still were stubborn.

God set the sabbath day aside for rest because it was a day of rest for Himself. Instead of focusing on the sabbath day or on what one can or cannot do, people should focus on the One who created it and gave it to them. The sabbath day is not god over Yahweh. Yahweh is God over the Sabbath. On the Sabbath, people are to rest and focus on God because He created it and gave it to them.

For the Pharisees, the laws based on the interpretations of God’s Laws were more important than the words God gave the Old Testament writers. They became inflexible in applying their own interpretations and put more emphasis on them that on God. All the while, God gave the Old Testament to point people to Himself. God judges each person according to His Word, not the rules humanity makes.

God forbade men to work for their profit on the Sabbath, not for gathering a few grains to feed themselves. Jesus’ disciples wanted to know Jesus more and to see Him teach, preach, heal, and cast out demons. They followed Jesus, even on the Sabbath. By following Jesus, they kept the sabbath day holy. They focused on the Messiah. When they became physically hungry, these men ate what they could find, heads of grain near their hands. This action was not harvesting, but gleaning. Deuteronomy 23:25 teaches about this. It says, “When you enter your neighbor’s standing grain, then you may pluck the heads with your hand, but you shall not wield a sickle in your neighbor’s standing grain.”

The disciples’ plucking grain was not work. It did not distract them from God. The disciples’ actions did not make the day unholy. The intention of Jesus’ followers was to continue to follow Him, but they had a need. Their physical bodies required sustenance to continue following Jesus.

The Reminder

And He (Jesus) said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and he and his companions became hungry: how he entered the house of God in the time of Abiathar, the high priest, and ate the consecrated bread, which is not lawful for anyone to eat except the priests, and he also gave it to those who were with him?” (Mark 2:25-26 [NASB])

Jesus continued teaching. He taught with words and with actions. He knew the Pharisees followed Him to trap Him in what He did and taught. Jesus understood the educated religious leaders would learn from His use of history and Scripture. It would be easier for these learned men to discount miracles and harder for them to push aside known historical facts and sacrificial laws. Jesus meets each person where they will listen most to Him.

Jesus did not debate or argue with the Pharisees. He focused the Pharisees upon a man whom they held in high esteem in Israelite history. That man was David, God’s chosen man as king for His people. David had expanded the borders of Israel. The crops and livestock of the nation had increased. David was deeply devoted to God and enjoyed His favor. God had promised David that his kingdom would never end (2 Samuel 7:11-13) and, from him, the Messiah would come (Isaiah 59:20). The Israelites considered David godly. Jesus then reminded the Pharisees of the time David fed his soldiers with the showbread on the altar in the holy place of the temple.

Jesus taught the Pharisees in the method to which they were accustomed by asking questions. This was the rhetorical method where education happens through discourse, orally. He said to the Pharisees, “Have you never read?” Jesus knew these learned men had read about David. He realized they held David in high esteem. To the Israelites, David was the model for being a great Jew. People sought to emulate him. They also had hope in the promise God gave to David about the Messiah coming from his line. Because of this, Jesus showed His disciples’ actions were like David’s men’s actions. This could then be reason enough, according to the religious leaders, for the disciples to pluck grain. David and his men were hungry and so ate from the temple offerings (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Likewise, Jesus’ disciples were hungry and so plucked and ate on the Sabbath. The actions of both leaders’ followers ran parallel.

According to Leviticus 24:5-9, only the priests were to eat the showbread that was in the holy place. Yet, the high priest, Abiathar, offered the showbread to David and his men, if they had kept pure from women. God never condemned this action by the priest. David had not acted in rebellion to God when he asked for food and accepted the showbread. He wanted to meet the immediate need of hunger in a life-or-death situation. God never condemned the priest for giving David the showbread. God considered David just.

Like David and his men had a just reason for eating the showbread, Jesus’ disciples had a just reason for plucking and eating the grain. They hungered while following Jesus. The disciples did not reap and steal a man’s grain. Their intention was to eat while continuing to follow and learn from Jesus. Staunching the hunger was a necessity. Ceremonial law was less important than the necessities of men.

The Pharisees would not dare to say David and his men eating the showbread was inappropriate. They held him in too high a regard to consider saying that. If they could not judge David, then they could not judge Jesus’ disciples. In both instances, the men ate out of necessity. The bread was still holy in that the men received it from God. Likewise, Jesus and His disciples still held the sabbath day in high esteem. The followers did not stop to harvest a field so they could make bread; they just plucked a few grains to eat as they followed Jesus.

To Jesus, ceremonial ritual is not always necessary, but moral duty is. Feeding people. Helping the sick. Caring for the homeless, orphans, and widows. These are moral duties. As Christians, our care for people shows our love for God. This being said, Jesus did not encourage willful disobedience. He considered how God’s Word deals with the issue. Scripture should always guide how we live.

The Lesson

Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27 [NASB])

Jesus helped the Pharisees to realize ceremonial rituals are not as important as giving what is necessary for people to live. He then arrived at the point of His teaching. Jesus reminded the Pharisees of David. He wanted to make sure the Pharisees, and each person, understood this lesson. Jesus understood if a religious leader learned a truth, then his/her followers would learn the truth, too. This model of getting the truth to more people is one reason Jesus trained His followers and made them fishers of people. A quicker way to get the gospel to each person was to multiply the messengers.

Jesus used the sabbath day to teach His disciples and the Jewish religious leaders. He willingly faced the Pharisees’ accusations so He could discuss God’s intentions and His heart. Plucking grain heads on a sabbath day and having the Pharisees see it allowed Jesus to instruct both sets of people about God’s intention for the Sabbath. The lesson about the Sabbath is that God’s faithful ones should serve people, not restrict activities. This promoted keeping one’s focus on God and not on self. This teaching showed the Sabbath say was for serving God by His ways.

The purposes of the Sabbath are about keeping it holy to serve God and providing a rest day to serve people. If we truly serve God, then helping someone on the sabbath day can honor God. It can allow someone to hear the gospel or get needed encouragement and prayer. God instituted the Sabbath as a day of rest and focus on Him.

With this lesson about David breaking ceremonial law, Jesus taught a principle that governed this incident. The “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” This lesson would help the Pharisees accept the disciples’ actions of plucking grain. The disciples plucked grain because of their hunger. The Sabbath law created by the Pharisees hindered the moral law of meeting the hunger need of the disciples. Ceremonial laws they created were secondary to the necessity of the men. Jesus differentiated between ceremonial law and moral law. He wanted the Pharisees to learn this and believe in Him. Jesus wants each person of every nation, race, people, tribe, tongue, and time to learn about God, His Sabbath, and the salvation He offers.

The Point

So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:28 [NASB])

God created the Sabbath Law (“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” [Exodus 20:8].) to keep us focused on Him and to give us regular rest. This Law is for the good of each person. This Law is a divine law, not human created. Since this law is a divine law, the Son of Man, as Daniel wrote in Daniel 7:13, can direct which of humanity’s laws can be interrupted for the moral good. Because of this, plucking grain to feed hungry people is not working. People are affected for good when they are not starving. Jesus’ disciples did not faint from hunger. He explained to the Pharisees and His disciples that He has the authority to suspend law to meet the needs of humanity for his/her spiritual and physical good.

Further, this means it was right to eat with sinners so they would come to know God through the Messiah (spiritual good). It was right to heal the paralyzed man because it was for his physical and spiritual good. It was right to eat with the bridegroom—Jesus—while he was with the groomsmen, His disciples (spiritual good). Each of these was for spiritual and/or physical good. Jesus, as God, had authority to suspend manmade Sabbath laws for the physical and spiritual good of these people and everyone He healed, cast out demons, and ate with during His three-year ministry.

By feeding the disciples grain (taking them through the grain field), Jesus sought to ease their hunger. By forbidding their plucking grain, the Pharisees showed they cared not for the plight of men, but for their own system of godliness, which did not include God. These Pharisees did not argue with what Jesus said. If they did, they would show their stony hearts of not caring for other people. The Pharisees’ pride was bound up in their laws and self-ordained religiosity. They would hate whatever and whoever came up against their standard of faith, yet their faith was not in God, but in their ability to do every one of the 633 Judaic laws. The Pharisees were religious, according to their standards, but not godly, according to God’s standards. Religiosity is following rules and rituals as dictated by a religion, but not necessarily having the faith in Jesus that is the hallmark of being a Christian. Doing things does not make a person faith-filled. Actions do not save a person from his or her sins. Faith in Jesus alone by God’s grace saves a person from his or her sins and eternal death.

Jesus showed His innate power and authority. He did this by healing people, casting out of demons from people, feeding people, and teaching people. His love issues from His being. God is the source and definition of pure love. Jesus speaks, acts, and thinks morally. From Him comes absolute morals for the good of all humanity.

From this time onward, the Pharisees sought to catch Jesus blaspheming so they could add it to His list of crimes. Jesus has been calling Himself the Son of Man. If the Pharisees had been paying attention, they would have realized His statement meant He is Deity and has authority over God’s laws. Jesus’ statement was like peeling another layer of the onion to show more to people that Jesus meant He is the Son of God—the Messiah.

Application and Conclusion

The Pharisees were preoccupied with every ritual of the Sabbath. They did not see Jesus as the Messiah. They put more emphasis on the day of the week than they did on the Savior. Jesus should have been their priority. Instead, they chose the demands of human traditions as their priority.

Jesus suspended a ceremonial law to meet the moral law. He taught the Sabbath Law God gave was to serve God and humanity, so keep it holy by focusing on Him and helping people in need to whom He sends you. Often, people cannot or will not hear a person tell them about Jesus because they are hungry or in pain. Sometimes only when a person receives tangible love from a Christian can or will he or she see Jesus. Often, people are stubborn, like the Pharisees. Other people refuse to see or hear Christians until Jesus shows proof of His love. Sometimes even tangible proof does not move a stubborn heart.

The point of this chiasmic story from Jesus’ ministry is that Jesus has authority over the Sabbath because He is the Son of God, Deity. The Pharisees, after this discussion with Jesus, still refused to believe in Him as the awaited Messiah. They continued doing their ceremonial rituals and immersing themselves in religiosity. We do not have to be like them. At this point, we can choose to believe in Jesus for salvation and cast away the empty rituals we follow aimed at proving our self-proclaimed goodness. This will allow us freedom from sacrificing ourselves on the altar of good-enough-ness. We can know without doubt Jesus redeemed us and set us free to be holy, focus on God and His intentions, and serve Him and other people. The Sabbath Law of God is our law of rest and service.

This leads to questions:

1.     Are you too busy policing others that do not worship?

2.     Are you too busy criticizing the music or sermon that you do not worship God?

3.     Are you telling other people about Jesus, while feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and taking care of the widow, orphan, and foreigner?

Take your day of rest before God and receive what He offers you-wholeness, peace, joy, renewed energy, and His mission—for you to serve other people.

¹⁷ Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

²³ Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord and not for people,

 ²⁴ knowing that it is from the Lord that you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve. (Colossians 3:17, 23-24 [NASB])

The Substitute

 

I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20 (NIV)

Jesus said this in His Sermon on the Mount. He pointed out that the people the Israelites looked up to as righteous were not righteous enough to be with God in His kingdom. This must have concerned them. The hearers of Jesus that day must have wondered how they could be with God in eternity. I am sure Jesus realized what was in the hearts and minds of the people listening to Him that day. He already had the plan in place. God has had the plan in place since time began of how sinful people, people He loves, can be with Him. He knows holiness cannot exist together with sin. That is not a choice, but a fact. Where sin is, no holiness exists, just like where holiness is, no sin can exist. Other writers and speakers give this example. When one enters a completely sealed and dark room, no light exists, but as soon as a person strikes a match, darkness is shattered, and the light pushes it away.

With that idea, we should consider what Jesus offers so people could be with God. The people on the mountain that day realized He had been speaking about God and eternal life with Him. Jesus taught them the Beatitudes, about what is more important than gathering things for yourself in this life. He explained that what is in a person causes the sin and offered His listeners a glimpse at the new covenant. Jesus explained He fulfilled the Law and brought the new covenant based on God’s mercy and grace. Nothing people can do can earn it for them. The first covenant required the Israelites to obey the Ten Commandments, which the religious leaders expanded to 622 regulations. Jesus said He fulfilled those laws in the Sermon on the Mount. With His life and death, Jesus provided what was necessary for redemption from sins forever and for each believer to have eternal life.

This idea that one must be righteous is not new to the New Testament. From God’s laws, the Israelites knew He required twice daily sin sacrifices to atone for their sins, their wrongdoings. These animal sacrifices were never enough for the complete and permanent cleansing of the sins they committed. Nothing a person could do would make the stains from sins and the condemnation because of sins go away permanently. Yet, God declared righteous some people in the Old Testament. If we are familiar with the Old Testament, we remember of a few people from memory, like Elijah, Moses, David, and Abraham. There were others, too, who God stated were righteous. Consider Ezekiel 14:12-23. Four times, in His condemnation of Jerusalem, God compared Noah, Daniel, and Job as having a righteousness that exceeds any person in Jerusalem. He stated explicitly in verses 14, 16, 18, & 20, “Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, their righteousness would save no one but themselves, says the Sovereign LORD.” God declared Noah, Daniel, and Job righteous because of their faith. (Hebrews 11:7, Job 1:1. In the book of Daniel, Daniel told the king the interpretation from God of the dreams God had given the king. By doing this, he was a prophet of God. God called His prophets righteous in Hebrew 11:32, & 39-40) God, with the first covenant with the Israelites agreed upon at Mount Sinai, declared the Israelites His people, His nation. This first covenant was to lead them to Him and let other nations know they are His people, whom He will protect. It provided for their faithlessness to their covenant with Him by explaining what He would do to discipline/punish them. This first covenant to the Israelites, the Mosaic covenant, provided no means of eternal salvation by works or by offering animal, grain, and oil sacrifices. Some of the Israelites intentionally sought and believed God deeply. They changed their lives to follow how He led them. Each of these Israelites allowed God to be the Sovereign LORD of their lives, just as God stated in Ezekiel 14.

God declared several Old Testament people righteous because of their belief in Him that led them to revere, love, and follow Him with their lives. Understand, He did not love just a few people. God loves all people. He seeks to have a personal relationship with each person. God understood the first covenant was not one giving redemption. That’s why He planned from creation to give a second covenant. That second covenant occurred when Jesus allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross and buried, three days after which He rose from death. Jesus conquered sin and death with this Messianic covenant. No other sacrifice does a person need to offer for his or her sins. Belief in Jesus, with the individual’s profession of faith in Him, and a confession and repentance of his or her sins brings the person into a saving, cleansing, eternal relationship with God. Nothing else. No one’s faith can provide salvation for anyone else.

God told Ezekiel to tell the people of Jerusalem that having God-fearing and righteous people in their city would not keep them from God’s righteous judgment and wrath. His wrath came because of their repeated sins against Him, each other, and other nations. They could not rest on the righteousness of others-not priest, prophet, grandparent, parent, or siblings, etc. No one is righteous except through God declaring them so.

When a person believes in Jesus Christ and He washes the sins of that person from his or her record, then God declares the person clean and righteous, just like He declared Noah, Daniel, Job, Abraham, Moses, and others of the Bible righteous. God provided a way for each person to be declared clean and righteous with the sacrificial death of His sinless Son in substitution for each of us. We do not have to die an eternal death of separation from God. By our belief and because of His grace, God will declare a person righteous. Paul said this in Ephesians 2:8, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”

None of us knows where another person truly stands in his or her relationship with God, but we each realize where we ourselves stand. Do you have a saving faith in Jesus? Do you believe Jesus is God’s Son, who died the death you deserve because of your sins against God? God will apply the death of Jesus against your sin judgment. He will apply His resurrection from the dead to you so that you will live eternally with Him in His kingdom. Now is your chance to confess your sins to God and repent of them asking Him to give you the direction and strength to avoid temptation and live a righteous life? What keeps you from believing in Him and receiving His grace?

As it is written:

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away, they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good, not even one.

Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

²³ For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

(Romans 3:10-18 & 23 [NIV])

Devoted Love

 

“Shower, O heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down righteousness; let the earth open, that salvation and righteousness may bear fruit; let the earth cause them both to sprout; I, the LORD, have created it!” (Isaiah 45:8 [ESV]) 

    Almost everyone has stood dominoes in a row on their ends on a flat surface or has seen this done. When any domino falls over, others fall as a reaction of the first fall. People call this phenomenon the domino effect. An action causes a reaction. Our lives are like that. At times, we choose not to follow what God told us. After disobeying, we find the result is not bad, so it becomes easier to go against God’s will more. Before we realize it, we walk so far away from Him that we cannot hear His voice and we find ourselves in trouble. What God said through Isaiah speaks about this. 

    Isaiah 45:8 records several commands from heaven. In it, He commands the heavens to shower from above, tells the clouds to rain down righteousness, tells the earth to open so salvation and righteousness may bear fruit, and tells the earth to cause them to spout. The last section of this verse declares who commanded these actions, the LORD God. 

    Notice the Creator commands different parts of creation to act. From the highest part of creation, the heavens, God commands showers, continual flows of righteousness and salvation, to fall. Descending to the next level, He commands the clouds to rain down righteousness. Finally, God commands creation at humanity’s level to bear fruit and cause it to spout. What does God mean by each of these commands? 

    The first command declares that righteousness and salvation come from the heavens. In biblical understanding, the heavens denote the place God lives. The “showers” spoken of by God are flowing waters. Throughout the Bible, the writers mention a river flowing from the fountain, from God’s mercy seat. He is the source of true salvation, righteousness, grace, and mercy for all people. This means God’s showers from the heavens continually flow from Him with mercy and grace to give salvation and righteousness. 

    The second command God gives is for the clouds to rain down righteousness. Again, only God gives righteousness and salvation. Righteousness is God making a person right, cleansed from sin and made holy. Righteousness is part of God’s character. He is righteous; He never sins. God is holy. A person’s being made righteous by God occurs when he or she professes faith in Jesus as the Son of God and confesses his/her sins for salvation. The salvation by God of a person gives righteousness from God to that person. God alone provides salvation and makes believers righteous. Until a person professes faith in Jesus, the flowing river of God’s grace and mercy does not affect him or her. God does not have to give righteousness and salvation, but He chose to provide for it when He created all creation. He knew people would sin because He gave them freewill to decide what they will do in each situation. This means, before God made a verbal covenant with humanity in the Old Testament, an implied covenant by God to people existed. He planned to provide salvation from sins, guilt from sins, and the judgment of eternal death away from Him for each person. 

    With God’s third command, He orders the earth to open so salvation and righteousness will bear fruit. God addresses the last level of creation, earth. When “earth” appears in this verse, He means people. Once a person professes faith in Jesus, God gives salvation. Salvation is His restoration of each believer to sinlessness in His eyes, a cleansed, righteous relationship with God by Jesus’ death. “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 [ESV]. Once a person receives God’s grace (undeserved forgiveness at the expense of holy God) through faith, a relationship with God occurs. This relationship, like any relationship, requires communing with Him in devoted love. Staying in communion with God requires a person to be open to God and grow to know Him better. This explains the analogy God commands that “the earth opening to salvation and righteousness.” A believer devotedly loving God shown by drawing near to Him each day causes growth in his or her relationship with God. 

    The last command God gives through Isaiah is for the earth to cause salvation and righteousness to sprout. God’s fourth command expresses the causal effect of command three for command four. This means open to God and His gifts and you will have a relationship with and spiritual growth from Him. Without a growing relationship with God, spiritual growth, fruit, will not occur. Sanctification becomes stagnant. In this instance, the domino remains standing, but not strengthened in its foundation for stabilization. Spiritual growth may seem the obvious effect from salvation. Yet, some believers reach the end of the honeymoon phase and their find life trouble-free. They begin not relying on God every day and not communing with Him. This causes the stagnation of a believer’s spiritual growth. When times are troublesome, almost every believer seeks God. He or she desires Him and seeks Him through prayer and Bible study. God spoke to this human tendency of not communing with God daily in the fourth command of this verse. He told His children to let their salvation and righteousness “sprout”. Let it grow by devotedly loving God. Devoted love for Him results in believers setting aside time to be with Him each day through prayer, Bible reading and studying, fellowshiping with other believers, and private and congregational worship. Communing with God nurtures and matures the believer to be more like Christ, who is wholly righteous. The result of this maturation of the believer is the bearing of fruit that come from salvation and righteousness. This fruit then leads to obedience to God requiring action and/or thought. Each person will only understand what thought or action God desires by relating to Him through a continual relationship with Him. 

    Stay connected to the Vine. Being connected to the Vina is devotedly loving and communing with God. Once a grape leaves the vine, it withers and dies. Remaining connected to the vine allows the grape to receive nourishment and grow. John said this in John 15:1-2 when wrote, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit [ESV].” Only God’s righteousness causes growth. Attempts by people to manufacture righteousness fail. God is the author of salvation and causes its growth when a person professes faith in Jesus and stays in a continual relationship with Him. 

    The believer becomes more like Christ and becomes more sanctified when he or she stays in a devoted relationship with God. This shows salvation is for now and for eternity. A growing relationship with God produces a greater faith and sanctification. The growth of righteousness shows by fruits of the Spirit growing in the believer. Paul listed some fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23–love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. God will perfect the believer’s sanctification when he or she dies on earth and arrives in heaven. Salvation is for now, tomorrow, and eternity. God did not intend for it solely to be for eternity. God, through Isaiah, commands the “earth” (people) to “open” (command three) and commune with Him. This means God desires for each believer’s salvation and righteousness to grow (command four). 

    Isaiah 45:22 reiterates verse eight with another command. God commands in this verse, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” A person cannot save him or herself. Sinfulness cannot beget purity like a mule cannot beget a horse. Do not look elsewhere for salvation and a possible way to be righteous. Turn toward God and look to Him. Keep on looking at Him and don’t look elsewhere. When a person takes his or her eyes off God, the dominoes begin falling. Later, after many dominoes have fallen, that person who looked away will recall his or her life while clinging to the Vine. He or she will realize how and when he or she disconnected from God. When we are at that point, we must pray, repent, and return to God. He will restore righteousness to each person who calls on Him. In 1 John 1:9, John wrote, “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

    Being saved by God is a continuous action. God saves a believer at a point in time. That person, like all believers, is being saved from death, temptation, sin, and guilt each day. One day God will complete in heaven that believer’s sanctification, purification that leads to holiness. Repenting, which leads to confession, means doing a 180 degree turn to look at God. The believer turns and keeps turning toward God and He continues to sanctify him or her each day as he or she repents and confesses his or her sins. Each day, the believer must look and keep on looking at God. Commune and keep on communing with God. Jesus spoke in His Sermon on the Mount about God wanting a relationship with each person by telling people to seek, knock, and ask in Matthew 7:7-8. He said, 

“Ask (and keep on asking), and it will be given to you. Seek (and keep on seeking), and you will find. Knock (and keep on knocking), and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” [ESV]

     Cling to the Vine. Take in the righteousness God rains down on you. Let the salvation God gives burrow into the ground of your heart, mind, and spirit so that righteousness and the fruits of the Spirit grow. A believer can allow sprouting and growing by staying connected to God, the giver of the fruit. 

    The Lord created everything that exists, including you. He gives righteousness and salvation to you when you believe in Jesus Christ and confess your sins. You only need to cling to the Vine by devotedly loving and obeying God (Jeremiah 2:2). Don’t let the dominoes in life cause a domino effect in your life. Don’t let things in your life lead you away from God. Stay connected to God. Grow in sanctification and righteousness. 

Pledge of Hope

 “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 [NASB]

As I read 2 Corinthians 5 today, God made me aware of a few things I had heard in sermons over the years but had not put together into one train of thought. In this chapter, Paul wrote about living as a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He told the Christians in Corinth about the mental tug-of-war believers live with continually from the day Jesus cleanses them from their sins and makes them a child of God. All believers experience this tug-of-war. They live in a sinful world and long to be with Christ in heaven, long to be clothed fully with the righteousness of Christ and live in a righteous world, His kingdom. Paul stated that he and other Christians’ desires to be righteous and in God’s presence forever is so deep that it causes them to groan and feel the burden of wanting the life Jesus offers to swallow up and take over their mortal life (2 Corinthians 5:4).

Have you ever felt this desire, this burden? If you’ve ever known a senior-aged adult Christian or a Christian who had a terminal illness, you will recall their spoken desire to be in heaven with God and their loved ones and not on earth. Their desire and burden are so great that it seems they speak of this every time you visit them and even mention it several times during a visit. If you’ve not spent time with someone who had this deep desire, then consider of a time when you wanted something very much. Maybe you’ve not been able to become pregnant and have children. Possibly you’ve wanted to go to university to study for a degree, but the funds were not available. Perhaps you have a family member who has cutoff communication with you, and you have prayed for them to have a change of heart so you can talk with them. Each of these are great desires. They are mortal desires. The desire to be in God’s kingdom and in His presence is an eternal desire. It originates with the Holy Spirit living within a person’s being. The Christian recognizes this world is not his/her own and wants to go to the place of peace, joy, and rest in the presence of God.

Paul experienced this desire. He said he preferred to be away from the body (his mortal life that fights against sin and decays) and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:7-8). Yet, Paul knew only God knows the time of a person’s death. Because of his love for Jesus, he sought to please Him even while he lived in his mortal body on earth, and not just because he would stand before God’s judgment seat one day (vs 9-10). Paul said while he lived in his mortal body, he desired to please the Lord and that means loving Him. “Christ’s love compelled him and his co-laborers” to tell other people about Jesus and the salvation He gives to anyone who believes in Him (vs 11, 14-15). Because of their love for God and their desire to obey Him, they regarded other people the way Jesus does. Jesus desires each person be saved (2 Corinthians 5:15, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, John 11:25, Romans 6:10). Prejudice should no longer have place in a believer’s heart. Instead, the love of Jesus for each person must be paramount.

Paul said each person who is a believer once regarded Jesus Christ with prejudice. We, mentally, said, “He could not be that powerful.” Or, we’ve said, “He cannot take away my sins. I am too stained and dirty from the evil I have done.” We might have said, “There is no God and so there is no Jesus. This life on earth is all I have, so why bother a God who was never there for me.” Each of these is a prejudice against Jesus and the Trinity. We judge Him as not powerful, not telling the truth, not caring and loving, not merciful and forgiving, and/or non-existent. Yet, the words in the Bible are testimonies from several millennia. The testimonies of believers, since Bible writers penned what God told them to tell people, proclaim God is real, alive, almighty, omniscient, loving, merciful, and Life-giving. Paul taught about God and the sufficient sacrifice provided for the sins of the world through the sinless life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. This is what Paul proclaimed. He said, “Though we once regarded Christ in this way (with prejudice), we do so no longer” (2 Cor, 5:16). Because Paul and his colleagues had no prejudice against Christ, they proclaimed Him through their lives and their testimony of what He did for them, who He is, what He called them to do, and to whom and how they were to proclaim Him. He proclaimed in verses seventeen and eighteen,

“Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh [that is, with prejudice]; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Paul said in these verses, he and the other men with him had no prejudice. Why? Because when they believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, their Savior, He put into them His Spirit and made them a new creation. This new creation occurred at their belief in Him. When they trusted in Jesus, His Spirit came upon them and began changing them from their old, mortal, prejudiced self into His own image. Because Jesus was unprejudiced and came to earth to save each person, each believer is supposed to live a similar non-prejudicial way by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes a believer from the old nature (“clothing.” as Paul said) to the new nature. Christians understand and desire what Jesus desires, that each person would hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus as the Son of God for his or her salvation. Because of this, Paul said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (vs 20). God’s desire for all people to receive salvation becomes the believer’s desire. This desire is part of the same groanings and longings Paul expressed in verse four. This desire comes because the Spirit makes Christians more and more into the image of Christ; Christ’s desires become their desires. Jesus’ desire is not just to be with His Father in heaven, but that each person receives salvation and change into His image (nature), change from their old, mortal, sinful nature.

Christians desire and long to be clothed by Jesus’ Spirit with the new nature He gives and to be with Jesus in His kingdom. While they live on earth in their mortal bodies, the Holy Spirit lives in them and changes them continually into the image of Christ. His indwelling is the guarantee, the pledge from God, of their future eternal change into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 5:5). The Spirit of Christ in a person is like earnest money put down for a house or car. It is a guarantee of the future fulfillment of the contract or understanding. Knowing the Spirit is within the believer, that person has hope that one day, the Spirit will one day completely cloth him or her in the new nature. When difficulties in life occur–temptation, trials, and persecutions–the assurance, guidance, and protection by the Holy Spirit remind the Christian of God’s assurance, His guarantee, that he or she will be in God’s kingdom and will experience peace and joy eternally with Him.

This chapter of 2 Corinthians tells us about some purposes of the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus. He lives in each Christian to assure the believer of his or her salvation. The Spirit in the Christian’s life reminds him or her of God’s eternal purpose for him or her with Him in His kingdom. The Spirit is the guarantee of being totally made in Jesus’ image. He gives the believer the deep longings to be with God and the desire to be on earth. This desire to be alive on earth comes with it the desire to love Christ by being obedient to His commands to tell each person on earth about Him. The Spirit puts into each Christian’s heart the love of Christ for each person so he or she wants to tell others about Him. Christians realize they are ambassadors for Christ. The Spirit living in a believer encourages, teachers, guides, protects, and remakes each person into a closer resemblance of Jesus Christ, changing them to have His love and non-prejudicial attitude, desires, and righteousness.

Today, we should each stop and consider what keeps us from believing in Jesus. Is it because it seems God is not real or does not care since you assume He is not listening to your prayers? Next, we should examine ourselves to determine where prejudice lives in our heart and ask Jesus to forgive us and make us like Himself. Then we need to ask Him to show us where we refused for Him to continue making us into His image and confess the sins He shows to us. We should examine ourselves to determine when and why we stopped believing in God and ask Him to remind you of the guarantee by His Spirit of your eternity with Him in His kingdom. Ask for forgiveness for judging Him and His purposes and ask that He put His desires in you, the desire to love Christ and love each person you meet because He loves them. Ask God to help you keep your eyes always on Him. Pray to Him for the will to love and obey Him, even when it makes little sense. Thank God for loving you and saving you. Praise Him for who He is, the eternal, almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent God. Praise Him for what He has done in your life and throughout the expanse of time from creation. Thank God for choosing you to be in a righteous relationship with Him.

The Holy Spirit in a believer’s life now is the earnest money of God’s love and plan for you, a plan not to harm you but to give you a hope and a future (Jeremy 29:11). His living in a Christian grows the person to be loving and unprejudiced like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit living in you now on earth is a taste of what you will be fully when you live with God in His kingdom for eternity. 

Each Christian can decide to let the Spirit to change him or her. That permission changes a person from being prejudiced into becoming like Jesus.  As a result, the Spirit, God’s pledge to Christians, reminds them of their future full transformation and transition to living in God’s kingdom. God will make each believer like Jesus and He will give them their inheritance, eternal life in His kingdom.

Will you live as one who received God’s pledge, or will you stay prejudiced?

The Right Way

“And the seed whose fruit is righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:18 [NASB])

Consider great things guided by small things. A ship goes how the rudder is pushed or pulled. A horse goes how the bit is guided. A person guides them both. Our lives, too, go in the way by whom we allow to direct it. When we get behind the steering wheel of a car, we can direct it where we want, assuming no disaster or health matter interferes with the steering of the car. We can decide for ourselves where the car will go. Our thoughts lead our words and actions.

James said in James 3 that though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts of great things (3:5). Our tongues may boast of our educational degrees. It may boast of our work status. Our tongue may boast of what we own, where we are going, or what we have done. Yet, none of these things or this boasting gives us the unattainable by humankind.  Nothing of what we’ve done, said, or thought can make us righteous.

Paul explained in Galatians 1 that, of all men at that time, he had more reason to boast than any Jew. In Galatians 1:13-14, he told the church at Galatia he advanced in Judaism beyond many of his contemporaries among his countrymen and was more extremely zealous for his ancestral traditions. Each of us understands Paul’s great goals of being the best at what we do and of wanting recognition for being the best. Still, once Paul met Jesus on that road, he realized his best would never be good enough. He persecuted people just to advance in his job. God does not condone persecution or selfish ambition and jealousy.

We may not physically persecute people. Instead we might “put people in their place.” By doing that, we strive to make ourselves appear greater in the eyes of people. Isn’t that what seeking to be better is about? We do these things to boast, to build ourselves up higher. This way of life is arrogant. James called this “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart” in James 3:14. Have we considered it that way? Have we realized this drive to get more, be more, and appear greater than others comes from selfish ambition and bitter jealousy?

James continued with this thought. In James 3: 11-12, he pointed out that good and bad cannot come from the same mouth. What comes from the mouth comes from the heart, and that defiles you, Jesus said in Matthew 15:11. We can say the same about our actions. What we allow to guide our mouth and our body comes from our heart. Just like fresh water and salt water cannot come from the same source, so selfish ambition and acts of righteousness cannot come from the same source. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Jesus in Matthew 5:6 preached on the mountain, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

If we cannot be righteous and do righteousness in word and action on our own while seeking greater things, titles, and praise, how do we succeed in the world and do righteous things? If I can’t do it on my own, what do I do? Jesus explained this in John 14:6. He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” No one can be righteous and do righteous things in their own strength. We each inherited the tendency to sin. Of our own strength, we cannot defeat temptation and sin. If we are honest, we will acknowledge we have sinned because of our own selfish ambition and jealousy. That is sin. Sin is seeking what we want irrespective of what another person wants or what is good for other people. Sin is turning away from God and His purposes to do what we want no matter what the cost.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions (sins), made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show us the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. (Ephesians 2:4-10 [NASB])

By God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ, He imputes (credits) Jesus’ righteousness to each person who believes in Him. This righteousness does not come because we are good or worthy. God gives it to each of us when we believe and because of His grace. From that point in time, the person who believes in Jesus for salvation has imputed righteousness and can do righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit within him or her. That person can overcome the desire to feel the need to be better than everyone else or own more than anyone else.  That person realizes he or she is not better than anyone else, but is a sinner just like all people. The only difference is that person received salvation from sin and eternal death. This power of Christ in us gives us the desire to do God’s will for His purpose, not for our selfish ambition or jealousy. We live a righteous life when our purposes align with God’s and our resultant actions, words, and thoughts agree with God’s.  

From the point of a person’s salvation, that person sows the seed of righteousness in peace (James 3:18). People see his or her faith in his or her good behavior and gentle wisdom (James 3:13). This wisdom from God is and brings peace, purity, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy, and good fruits.

Now when you get behind the steering wheel of the car (your life) you recognize God gave you, how will you drive it? Will you drive it with righteousness and its resultant wisdom and peace? Or, will you drive it with bitter jealousy and selfish ambition seeking to get what you want at whatever cost?

Remember, Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” (John 14:6 [NASB]) We can’t have righteousness and be right in all our actions, thoughts, and words without Jesus. Without Him, we sow discord, anger, jealousy, arrogance, hatred, etc. Is that what you want in your life? Or would you rather have the righteousness and wisdom that creates purity, peace, gentleness, love, joy, patience, kindness, humility, goodness, self-control, and faithfulness? (Galatians 5:22-23 and James 3:18)

It’s time we realize what Paul did on the Damascus road. He said in Galatians 1:15 that God set him apart even from his mother’s womb and called him through His grace. God said this to Jeremiah, too, in Jeremiah 1:5. Both of these men heard God’s voice in their hearts, minds, and spirits, and they believed.

God knew each of us before He formed us and before we were born. He calls us to Himself so He can make us righteous and justify us by His Son. Consider Romans 8:28-30.

And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified. [NASB]

Who’s driving your car?

Righteousness is available to you, to each of us.

Will you accept it and let God drive?

Jesus is the Way.

He gives righteousness.

With Him, we need nothing else.

We can be satisfied.

Lord, I try to do good things. I try to be my best and, also, get what I want. I don’t want to assume I need You to give me everything. I can work and get some things for myself. Yet, when I do it my way, I find an emptiness. I find as I get what I want, things around me don’t always work out right. Someone gets hurt. Another person gets left behind and not helped; and I feel guilty. I wonder if I could have done it another way. I have forgotten You are the Way. You are the best way. Lord, forgive me for seeking things and titles and forgetting You. Forgive me for leaving You to get what I want. I am weak and broken; I’m a sinner. Forgive me, please. Teach me contentment in You. Teach me patience and how to wait for You. Lord, take me where You want me to go. Give me what You want me to have. Use me to speak and do good and righteous deeds. Lord, use me to tell of You and Your glory. I am Your vessel; use me for Your will. Amen.

Cleansed Conscience

I remember the first time I came across Hebrews 10:2. I had been a Christian for just a little while and understood Jesus died my sin penalty because of His love for me so I could live with Him in heaven. I remember how excited I was about being a Christian, to be able to live forever in heaven with the One who loves me. What joy this gives to a child’s heart! What joy it should give to everyone who believes in Jesus. I thought life just couldn’t get any better than that.

And yet, I remembered things I had done wrong. You know what mischief a child can get into–lying, disobeying, swearing. The child thinks these are not big things. I won’t have to go to jail for these so why not do them, everyone else does? Still, after I gave my life to Christ, I felt pangs of conscience. I felt remorse and fear. What, over lying and swearing? Yes, because God instills in us a conscience when He creates us. That conscience is the moral code from God Himself about what is right and wrong. Whether we want to admit it, even these little things are sins. Why? Because they were disobedience and disrespect to God and my parents. Remember those commandments in the Ten Commandments?

So, one day not long after becoming a Christian, I read Hebrews 10:1-2. It says,

“For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sins?”

Now, two things can happen when one reads this passage. The first response to this reality is, “Hallelujah!” When a person fully repents of all his or her sins, God removes the guilt of those sins from His judgment book because Jesus paid the price. He removed the burden of guilt from the person’s conscience, too. That means it no longer holds a sting from the sin, the sting of guilt. You realize by now the possible other reaction from reading this passage. The second possible reaction to reading this verse is surprise and then repentance. When a person sins before or after becoming a Christian, he or she must repent of each sin to receive forgiveness and cleansing of heart, mind, and soul. That is the cleansing from the stain and guilt of sin. This is of what Hebrews 10:2 speaks. The worshiper, once he or she received God’s forgiveness and cleansing, no longer has consciousness of sin. The guilt of that sin in the conscience does not linger and cause further pain like a sliver Satan might put under your fingernail to remind you constantly of how sinful you are. That power of the sin to cause guilt is gone. Jesus paid it all, and that covers the stain and guilt/consciousness of sin.

Before the writer of Hebrews arrived at this point in his teaching, he spent chapter 9 leading to it. Let me briefly outline for you what he taught before and after Hebrews 10:2 about conscience and consciousness of sin.

With Hebrews 9:9, the writer of Hebrews said the gifts/offerings and sacrifices established as rites of worship by God under the first covenant cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper. That means it cannot make a person perfect, totally clean. This means he or she cannot be in the presence of the Lord eternally.

Later, in verse 14, the writer said the blood of Christ offered to God without blemish through the eternal Spirit purifies our conscience from dead works.  Now, that’s a big jump to make. Why is Jesus’ sacrifice better than those set up by God with the first covenant? The writer explains this in verses 11 and 12. He said, Christ came as a high priest of the good things, those things that originate with God, and He entered the holy places, those not made with human hands, once for all by His own blood, not that of animals. By doing so, He secured eternal redemption from slavery to sin for everyone. That’s a lot to take in, so go read it for yourself. Since Jesus did this, He is the Mediator of a new covenant for those who answer God’s call and receive the promised eternal life. Anyone who answers this call of God gets eternal life because Jesus’ death redeemed them from transgressions committed under the first covenant. The writer of Hebrews spends the next thirteen verses explaining this to us, his readers. He tells of three things Jesus did.

·       He has entered heaven to appear in the presence of God on our behalf    (vs 9:24). This is a past tense action. He never has to do this again    because Jesus died once for all.

·       Jesus appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (vs. 9:26). This is also a past action with a future assurance.

·       Jesus will appear a second time to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him (vs. 9:28). This is a future action.

The next point the writer of Hebrews made about consciousness of sin comes in the first verses I mentioned above, in 10:1-2. He said, the law, which is just a shadow of the good things that come from God, can never clean consciences of sin. If they could, there would be no need for continual offerings every year as established in the rites of worship God gave the Israelites in the first covenant. The writer went onto say these yearly sacrifices remind the people of their sins, instead of removing them from their consciences. He said Christ came to do the will of God (vs7). Jesus did away with the first covenant to establish the second covenant. Through the offering of the body of Christ, we receive sanctification once for all (vs. 9-10). With Jesus’ single sacrificial offering, He perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (vs. 14). God says, “I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more (vs 17).

Listen carefully to what the writer of Hebrews says in the next six verses. Since we have this confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, what are we to do? Being cleansed isn’t just a receiving transaction. Covenanting is a two-way promise, a bond. The writers said next, with your hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and your bodies washed with pure water (vs. 22), you must do three things.

·       Draw near with a true heart in full assurance of your faith (vs 22). This is for you now and in the future. It is a present action with a future benefit. Note it is not just present tense, but present continuous. Draw near and keep drawing near. This command benefits you.

·       Hold fast the confession of your hope without wavering because He who promised is faithful (vs. 23). Once again this is a present continuous verb that carries on into your future. Hold and keep holding fast. This command benefits you.

·       Consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, but encouraging one another (vs 24). Notice this command benefits you and other believers as you congregate together to worship, pray, and fellowship. It is a command that holds a communal aspect. Recognize this command also is present continuous. Consider and keep on considering how to stir up one another to love and good works.

These commands are not just things on your to-do list you get to cross off once you’ve done them. They are to stay on your daily list. Why? Because God calls you to relationship with Him because of His love. His love showed itself with the ultimate sacrifice of His Only Son, Jesus, for your sin penalty so you could be with Him in an eternal relationship. Your love for God will show in your obedience of His commands and laws. Your obedience to His commands and laws will show itself in love to other people. The three commands at the end of Hebrews 10 are an extension of loving God and people. You will do these because you are growing in relationship with God.

Now, to get back to Hebrews 10:1-2. When I first saw this passage, I received such vast relief. The burden of the guilt of sin I had carried, I realized, was for the first time off my back. Still, I realized I had not repented of all my sins and I had sinned since I became a Christian. I wanted the cleansing from the stain of my sins and the guilt of my sins. Jesus’ is the way to have that. No other way exists to remove the consciousness of sin. Only through Jesus’ death and resurrection can a person gain the removal of the stain and guilt of sins from him- or herself. All the ways people devise to remove the stain of sin reminds them of their guilt. The trying of these other means allows Satan to push that sliver deeper under your fingernail. You experience that guilt continually. Daily come before the Lord repenting of your sins so you will receive forgiveness and cleansing from the stains and guilty conscience of your sins. Hear the words of the writer of Hebrews again.

“Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Hebrews 10:22 [NASB]

Lord, God Almighty, lead me to recognize Your great love for me and the cost You paid to redeem me from sin. Forgive me of my sins, I pray. Thank You for removing the stain and the guilt of my sin. Thank You for removing the burden of guilt. Help me to love You more and grow closer to You daily. Help me show You how much I love You by my obedience to You. Amen.

NEW PODCAST on Prayer

Hello everyone,

A new podcast in the Prayer Bible study series has been uploaded. It begins our study of what makes a person of prayer effective. This week's characteristic of an effective person of prayer is righteousness.

You can listen to this podcast by clicking the link below.

http://gailsurattdavis.podbean.com/e/prayer-the-person-who-prays-righteousness/

Paul's Heart and God's Righteousness

Introduction

In the last Bible study when we studied Romans 1:1-7, we learned the typical way Paul began his letters to churches and Christians he visited or aimed to visit. He began this letter to the Romans similarly. From the beginning verses of the letter to the Romans, Paul stated to the readers and hearers his authority for teaching and preaching. He told of Jesus making him his apostle. Paul made sure his intended hearers and readers recognized his background and authority for teaching and preaching so they would not doubt his earnestness or the authenticity of the gospel of which he spoke. Besides this, he ensured the people knew the basics of the gospel.

From the end of verse six, Paul told us to whom he wrote this letter, the Roman Christians. He called them saints and used the word hagios, which means to be different as in set apart from other things, holy unlike other things that are unholy. Paul said God made them holy by cleansing them from their sins and setting them apart to be His children through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ.

After identifying the addressees, Paul greeted the Roman Christians with a prayer of blessing on them. He asked for God’s grace, His favor, to be on them. He asked for God’s peace to be on them, too. This peace for which Paul prayed is greater than the legendary peace of Rome, pax Romana. He understood two types of grace and peace exist-that from God and that found in the world that is not everlasting, but fades.

In this Bible study, we will consider Romans 1:8-17. In these few verses, Paul gave thanks for the Roman Christians, thanks for who they are and what they did, and thanks for what God would do for and to him because of being with them. He told in detail about what he was thankful regarding the Roman Christians. Paul then proclaimed his great desire to be with them and teach them so they would be established and encouraged. Along with his thankfulness for the Romans, he expressed his obligation because of Jesus making him an apostle to preach and teach Greeks and barbarians, and wise and foolish. The Roman Christians would have understood Paul’s heart of care for the salvation of every person no matter their background.

The final element of any Pauline letter was the incorporation of a summary of the main theme of his writing. Paul made sure people understood the purpose of his writing. He more than alluded to it in his opening statements. For the Romans, Paul stated the theme of this letter is the righteousness of God. Let’s now study verses eight through seventeen of Romans chapter one.

Thanksgiving

Another of Paul’s typical inclusions in the opening of his letters to other churches and here in Romans was thanksgiving to God. For what did he thank God regarding the Romans? Let’s consider what he said in verses eight through ten. Paul said,

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. (NASB)

Paul told the Romans two things for which he prayed to God in these three verses. He said he thanked God for the Romans. Why would Paul thank God for them? He said people around the whole world proclaimed their faith (vs. 8). Paul said he thanked God for the faith of the Roman Christians. Remember the history of Jews and Christians in Rome was one of persecution. (See the Bible study titled Romans, the Background.) The Roman Christians began by worshiping with the Jews, God-worshipers, in their synagogues in Rome. They identified with the Jews because they worshiped Yahweh, too. Since the Christians of Rome were a small group, they worshiped alongside the Jews. The leaders of Rome, therefore, considered the Christians of Rome an offshoot of Jews, not a separate faith. When the Emperors of Rome expelled the Jews, the Jewish-background believers in Jesus also had to leave Rome. That left the Gentile-background believers in Rome with no one else with whom to worship Yahweh and nowhere to worship so they began small house churches. When the Emperors who expelled the Jews died or repealed their expulsion, the Jewish-background believers returned to find established Christian churches in Rome. Through the series of these Emperors, the Christians of Rome kept the faith. Their conviction of the truth about Jesus Christ remained firm, and they continued to worship the Lord despite the upheaval. For this, Paul thanked God for the Roman Christians. These Christians, though faced with loss of worship place, home, leadership, and expulsion from Rome, stood strong in their faith in Jesus Christ.

With verse nine, Paul told these believers how big his heart was for them. He said he prayed unceasingly to God, whom he served, for the Roman Christians. Paul noted he served God. He willingly submitted himself as a bondservant for God’s service as an apostle to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. Paul, as God’s servant, claimed in verse nine God was his witness how often he prayed for the Romans. Claiming God as his witness was like taking an oath. God witnessed Paul’s unceasing care and prayer for the Roman Christians. No one higher exists and Paul attested to that with this oath emphatically letting the readers and hearers know if he lied, God would judge him. With this statement, the Roman Christians would realize without doubt Paul’s love for them since he prayed for them unceasingly. Paul loved the Roman Christians enough that he prayed for them ceaselessly and thanked God for them.

·         Do you pray unceasingly for anyone? Why or why not?

·         When you pray for someone regularly, do you find your heart grows closer to that person?

·         Why did Paul pray unceasingly for the Roman Christians? Is this why you pray unceasingly?

·         Do you suppress godly love for others and keep yourself from praying unceasingly for other people?

·         Could it be that you have not willingly submitted to God, and that keeps you from praying ceaselessly for other people?

Paul’s Heart

Strengthening Believers

Paul’s love for the Roman Christians went beyond praying for them when he remembered them. He desired to be with them. In Acts 19:21, Paul said, “I must also see Rome.” This “must” comes from the word dei and means what is imperative. Paul said he must absolutely appear in Rome. “See” comes from the Greek word horao and means to see, look upon, and experience; to see with the mind. Paul prayed for the Roman Christians because of what they experienced and their continued faith. He prayed for them to continue to be a testimony to God through their faith to the world. Paul desired to be with the Roman Christians to see them and experience their life with them because of his love for them. He trusted and prayed to God that he would “succeed” in going to the Romans (vs. 10). “Succeed” comes from the Greek word euodoo and means to grant prosperous and expeditious journey. Paul prayed God would grant him permission to go to Rome to see and be with them, and to be His apostle to them proclaiming the gospel there. He wanted to go at once, but he waited for God to make a way for him and send him. Though Paul’s desire was to be in Rome immediately, God’s timing for his visit there was for later.

The latter was truly Paul’s heart. He said in verses eleven and twelve,

For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established, that is that I may be encouraged together while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. (NASB)

Paul desired with his whole being to be with the Roman Christians and to be in Rome. Why he did it comes in the succeeding verses. He wanted to become acquainted with them by experience, not just by hearing about them. Paul wanted to impart something to them. “Impart” comes from the Greek word metadidomi and means to impart, share, or give over. Paul said he wanted to impart a spiritual gift. If we conclude his thought there instead of going through the end of the verse and going through verse twelve, we will make a mistake in understanding. Paul did not mean he wanted to lay hands on the people so they would receive spiritual gifts. This impartation of gifts is tied to the purpose of Paul’s letter. The purpose of Paul’s letter, he said, was to establish them and make them strong, and to encourage them. Verse eleven is emphasized and given its purpose with verse twelve. Paul did not emphasize his laying on of hands to pass supernatural spiritual gifts to people. His passing on of a gift came through his preaching of the gospel. The Romans probably had not received the preaching before by an apostle of Christ. Paul desired to be there to teach them the full truth of the Gospel so they would have a firm foundation and stand strong in their belief as they faced persecution then and in their future, especially since Jews had faced persecution by Emperors in the recent past already.

The “being established” Paul spoke of at the end of verse eleven means to place firmly, fix, strengthen, and make constant. Paul’s gift of teaching and preaching the gospel in Rome would help the Christians there to hear the whole truth of the gospel so they would stand firm and constantly fixed in their faith with the hope God gives through their salvation by Jesus Christ. He recognized a difference between standing firm through one’s own strength and personal fortitude and that given by God through salvation and the Holy Spirit. Paul loved the Roman Christians because God put His own love for them in his heart. Because Paul loved them, he wanted to make sure they understood well so they could stay strong through their faith in God and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Paul continued his thought from verse eleven. The first thought was he longed to be with the Roman Christians so he could impart a gift for their establishment. The second thought is he longed to be with them so he would be encouraged with them by their mutual faith. The word “encouraged” comes from the Greek word sumparakaleo and means to call upon, invite, or exhort at the same time together or to strengthen with others. Paul wanted to be together with other believers to strengthen them and gain strength from them. Remember, the Roman Christians knew about persecution or knew it from firsthand experience. Paul experienced persecution, too, throughout his ministry as an apostle of Jesus. He mentioned it often in his writings and spoke of his “thorn in the flesh.” Paul did not want to go to Rome just to give encouragement. He wanted to receive it, too. Christians who gather together find this happens as they associate, teach, strengthen, and pray for each other. These are some of the reasons God calls His children to worship Him in His temples, synagogues, and churches. Each Christian can bless others through the blessings with which God blessed him or her. They reciprocally and mutually encourage each other by their faith.

·         Do you attend church regularly? Why or why not?

·         What does Paul’s spoken need for encouragement make you feel or think?

·         Consider finding an evangelical Christian church near you, attending, interacting with the people there, and praying for God to bless you and the people there with whom you meet.

Proclaiming the Gospel

Paul’s first love was God. Circumcised on the eighth day, and trained as most Jewish boys in the Talmud, Paul studied under Rabbi Gamaliel strictly according to the law of the fathers of Israel. He was zealous for God and persecuted the Way, Jesus-followers (Acts 22:3-4) (NASB). Even while Paul was a Pharisee, he loved God, though some might say he loved the law more. While on his way to Damascus to persecute and take Jewish Jesus-followers from there to Jerusalem for punishment (Acts 22:5), Jesus met him in a very bright light. From that day, Paul loved Jesus and the God of salvation more than he did the law. At the moment Jesus met him, he became blind. Jesus told Paul to go to Damascus where He would reveal His appointed purpose for him. Paul entered Damascus and the priest, Ananias, told Paul, “The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One, and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.” [Acts 22:14-15 (NASB)]. From that moment, his heart for God leaped to its greatest height. Paul’s love for the unsaved grew because of God’s heart within him.

This heart of God within Paul compelled him to preach and teach the gospel. It gave him the desire to go to Rome. In Romans 1:13-15, Paul said,

And I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you, and have been prevented thus far, in order that I might obtain some fruit among you also, even among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. Thus, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. (NASB)

As he said in Romans 1:13, he “often planned” to go to them and God prevented it so far. Before we sail past this point to understand why Paul said he planned to go to Rome, let’s consider what he meant when he said he “had been prevented” from going earlier. The word “prevented” comes from the Greek word koluo and means to hinder, prevent, or forbid. During Paul’s three first missionary journeys, God forbade him to go to Rome. He gave Paul the task to preach to the unsaved in the east (Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, and Israel) and to encourage and strengthen them. Once churches started and Paul trained and left men behind to help them grow, God opened the door for Paul to go to Rome.

Paul’s going to Rome, he said, was like going to Macedonia, Ephesus, Corinth or any of the other places he visited. He wanted to preach the gospel so people would come to saving faith in Jesus the Christ. Though Paul had learned about Christians living in Rome, he realized there were many other people among the masses who lived or visited the metropolitan trade center who did not believe in Jesus and had not heard of Him.  For these people, Paul desired to preach the gospel so all people would receive salvation (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Paul, having freedom to travel easily within the Roman empire since he was a Roman citizen, used that freedom to take the gospel farther than any other apostle. He desired to go as far as Rome and Spain (Romans 15:24 & 28). He expressed his desire for the people in Rome in Romans 1:13 when he said he planned to go there so he “may obtain some fruit among you also even as among the rest of the Gentile.” Paul heard about the Christians in Rome, but understood there were thousands more who worshiped gods from the pantheon worshiped by Roman citizens and people who visited there.

The love Paul felt for God and for other people compelled him, obliged him, to preach to the people in Rome. He expressed this compelling in verse fourteen when he said he was under obligation to the Greeks and barbarians. This word “obligation” comes from the Greek word opheiletes and means one who owes another or is bound by a duty. Paul, the man who persecuted and ordered the deaths of Jesus-followers in Israel, felt obliged to God for saving him and for calling him as an apostle. He felt compelled to declare God’s gospel so other people, people like himself whom God created and loved, would know Jesus and receive salvation and eternal life. That shows Paul’s love of God and humankind. He did not decide Jesus could only save the Jews and so kept himself within Israel. Likewise, Paul did not decide only wise and socially acceptable people should hear the gospel. He determined each person he met, whether Greek or barbarian, wise or foolish must hear the gospel of salvation and receive the opportunity to accept Jesus as his or her Savior.

After making this point to the Roman Christians, Paul said it was because of this, his love for God and every person, and God’s calling on His life to preach and teach that he was ready to go to Rome. He said he was “eager” to preach the gospel. For Paul and for us, this means he was ready and willing. Often God asks a person do to something for Him, but that person is not willing. He/she knows God made him/her ready to do what He called him/her to do, but he/she is unwilling to do it. Paul stated in verse fifteen, he was ready (prepared by God) and willing (personally accepting and doing) to do what God asked of him. Eagerness implies God preparing you for a task and you being willing, consenting, and then doing what God called you to do. Paul did not preach grudgingly. He preached with a great desire to see all people come to know Jesus, receive salvation from their sins and gain eternal life with Him in heaven. To have this intense desire required him to love the Lord totally and to love his fellow man and woman enough to go anywhere to reach them and preach to them. Paul’s response to Jesus’ love for him, was love for God. God’s love for Paul and each person pierced Paul’s heart so he had the heart of God. Paul was ready. He expressed his willingness. Paul was eager.

·         God trains each of us for His service. He uses accountants, nurses, presidents, teachers, students, etc. to share the gospel and tell of His love.

·         You are trained. If you have accepted the love of God shared through His gospel and are a Christian, He made you ready.

·         Are you willing to do what God tells you to do? Eagerness comes from being ready and willing?

·         What will it take for you to be willing? What stops you from willingly giving up mastery of your life to the Master and Lord of all life?

Main Theme of Romans

Paul received God’s love for all people within himself, recognized it and his love for God, and acted upon his debt to God by willingly doing what God appointed him to do. God appointed him to preach the gospel. Paul recognized this calling and eagerly acted upon it for the rest of his life.

The main message of Paul’s preaching and teaching is what he primarily addressed in the letter to the Romans. He proclaimed his testimony in verses sixteen and seventeen. Paul said,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.” (NASB)

The righteousness of God was Paul’s main theme in this letter and in other letters. First, though, Paul attested he was not ashamed of the gospel. He was not embarrassed or afraid of his association with God and His gospel that came through the death of Jesus Christ, His Son. Paul expressed this conviction in 2 Timothy 1:12 when he said, “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.” (NASB) His conviction of God’s mercy, love, and provision of salvation drove him to tell as many people as he could about the gospel.

Paul expressed why the gospel was important and essential for all to hear and accept. He said, “It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” People have difficulty trusting in what they cannot see. This regularly gave an excuse for denying this gift God gives. Paul explained the gospel of God is not powerless and is real and vibrant. He said the gospel is the power of God. This “power” comes from the Greek word dunamis. Dunamis is the word from which we get our English words dynamite and dynamo. Dunamis is the power, strength, and ability inherent in God by virtue of His nature. God is the One who created the universe-rocks, land, seas, animals, plants, sun, stars, moon, wind, gravity, oxygen, and humankind-by His will, hands, and breath. He created everything out of nothing-ex nihilo, meaning “creation from nothing.” This powerful and creative God provided a way for people, people who have sinned and are unholy, to return to a right relationship with Him, the holy God. This way is the gospel Paul and all Christians proclaim. It came through the birth of Jesus, His Son, in human form to live as people live, in a sinful world, yet to be without sin. This Son then died though He did not sin, so that by His death, we sinful people could receive salvation from the death penalty of sin we deserve and wipe us clean from the stains of our sins. This cleansing from sins makes a person who believes in Jesus holy so he or she can be in God’s presence and have a relationship with Him. This gospel that proclaims God’s love and mercy toward us came through His Son, Jesus Christ. It is the power of God to save people if they repent and trust in Jesus Christ. 

Paul meant this when he wrote verse sixteen. God made His righteousness available to people through His power to save so each person who believes will become righteous-made right with God-and be in His presence from that day and forever. This gospel Paul preached is for the Jews, Greeks and barbarians, as his heart told him. He said in verse sixteen God’s powerful gospel of salvation is for everyone, “to the Jews first and also to the Greeks.” God wants everyone to come to a saving knowledge of Him.

With verse seventeen, Paul explained only by the righteousness of God will His people live. From their first steps in the faith through growth in their faith until the end of time, people will see God’s righteousness and hear His people testify about Him. Righteousness is the virtue of being right without tarnish of sin in thought, feeling, or action. God’s character defines righteousness and rightness. He is the epitome and definition of righteousness.  The salvation He gives people who repent and believe in Jesus makes them righteous by Jesus’ cleansing of their sins. Jesus Christ and the faith of believers reveal God’s righteousness. From the first encounter of salvation through to the end of a believer’s earthly life, God’s righteousness is revealed. From justification through sanctification to glorification, the righteousness of God shows through the person because of what God did through Jesus Christ.

Justification occurs when a person receives Christ as his or her Savior and received the cleansing from sins His sacrificial death made possible. Christ’s righteousness is credited to believers so they are made right with God and can have a relationship with Him. Paul said in Romans 3:21-22, “But now apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe.” (NASB)

“Sanctification” and “saint” come from the same root Greek word, hagios. They each relate to holiness. “Saint” means to be holy as set apart from something that is unholy. To sanctify something is to set it apart for special use. So, to sanctify a person, a saint/believer, is to make him or her holy for God’s use. Jesus spoke about sanctifying His disciples in John 17:17. Sanctification is being made separate for God’s use. All believers enter this state of sanctification when they receive new life through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, believers receive sanctification (1 Corinthians 1:30). God is the One who sanctifies a person. We cannot sanctify ourselves since we are not holy. Only one who is holy, who is clean from sin, can make something clean, holy, that was full of sin and separate it from the unholy. Sanctification is a progressive experience. As a person becomes more obedient to God that person becomes more holy. We set aside ourselves for God’s service, for His holy work, and grow in holiness through our obedience to Him. Peter called this “growing in the Lord” when he said, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 3:18 (NASB)] Paul spoke of it in Philippians 1:6 when he said, “For I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” (NASB) This progressive sanctification carries the idea that God sets apart to do the His purposes in the world just as Jesus set Himself apart for God’s purposes as John said in John 10:37. Jesus acknowledged God intended His children to go into the world to tell about Him in John 17:18-19. He said, “As Thou did send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.” Sanctification comes through Christ, through a relationship with Him. Peter said believers were to seek holiness. In 1 Peter 1:15, he said, “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in your behavior.” (NASB) Finally, Hebrews 12:14 says, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.” (NASB)

Sanctification is a process from the point of justification to the time when God’s kingdom comes on earth and He resurrects believers to live with Him eternally. When Paul said in Romans 1:17, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith,” he understood and taught that a Christian’s faith grows from its first baby steps at profession of faith through the person’s glorification. Going from faith to faith means following God’s leading and growing closer to Him with daily prayer, Bible study, and meditation. A believer reveals the righteousness of God more and more as his or her faith grows from its first aspiration and spoken words of acceptance throughout his or her life in love and obedience to God. Just as God is revealed through creation, conscience, Christ, and the Bible, so He and His righteousness is revealed through a believer’s life of faith. Paul meant this when he wrote in Romans 1:17, “The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” Paul’s faith revealed God’s righteousness so that he declared in verse seventeen he is “not ashamed of the gospel.”

·         Do you recognize the reality of God in His creation, in your conscience, in the lives of your Christian friends, and/or the Bible, but still push His gift of righteousness and salvation away? Why?

·         If you are a Christian, do you take time with God each day so that your faith grows along with your holiness? If not, why not?

·         Do you deny the power of God in your life even though you believed in Jesus Christ and received His salvation? Why do you refuse to grow with God and allow His Holy Spirit to guide and guard you each day?

·         Now is the time to consider each of these and decide if you will recognize God and accept His forgiveness, salvation, and power.

Recap

What is important about these ten verses to our lives today? Why should we pay attention and act upon them? First and foremost, the gospel is important. As Paul and other Bible authors stated, God’s love for humanity is paramount. Because of His love, He provided a way for each person to be in a right relationship with Him. This right relationship requires righteousness on both sides, but we humans do not have it because of the wrong things we have done, said, or considered. Through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, God wipes away the sins of humankind when a person believes in Him as the Son of God and repents of his or her sins. Because Jesus took the death penalty we each deserve for our wrongdoings, we do not owe for our sins. When Jesus allowed the Romans to crucify Him, He took the judgment for sinners. By His death, He gave us righteousness, God’s righteousness. When we believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who took our sins away, God makes us righteous and able to be in His presence, in a relationship with Him. That is most important for us in these verses.

Because of Paul’s encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul believed in Jesus as his Savior and has a love for God and humanity deeper than he ever had. His desire is to go where God tells him and to preach and teach the gospel. This desire, this love for the souls of other people, comes from the heart of God He put in him when Jesus saved him. Paul’s love for other people allows him to pray with thanks for them and to pray ceaselessly. In praying ceaselessly, Paul gains a greater heart and love for the people, comes to understand them better, and knows better how to pray for them. This back and forth dynamic occurs anytime we pray to God. As we pray, we know God more and we pray better. When we pray, we recognize God’s heart for people more and know the people better so we love deeper and better.

Relevance and Conclusion

What is the “take away” for this lesson? How is this relevant to us now? Paul’s love for God and submission to Him as a bondservant is most important here. He went when God told him to go. Paul went where God opened doors. God gave him a heart for Himself and the people, especially Gentiles. Because of Paul’s love for God, he willingly submitted to God as His Lord and Master. Paul said he was eager to preach the gospel. Using the Greek definition of eager, he was ready and willing. God made Paul ready. He put His heart for Himself and other people in Paul. God trained Paul in the Jewish laws for which he had been fiercely protective. He instilled in him the need for intent of the heart in worship, not mere ritual. God taught him how to preach when He had Paul train with Gamaliel. He prepared him to defend the gospel when he trained to be a Pharisee. God made Paul ready for the task to which He would call him. When Paul received the love of God through his salvation and expressed his love back to Him, it resulted in willingness to do the tasks to which God called/appointed him.

Our love of God shows in our obedience to what He asks of us. Paul’s voluntary submission to the Lord’s appointing him an apostle showed the depth of his love for Him. Our love for God shows in how we relate to other people. Do we love them like God loves them? Paul loved the Roman Christians enough that he prayed for God’s grace and peace on them and gave thanks to God for them though he had never met them or visited their city.

Our challenge, our calling by God, is to love Him and to love the people whom He loves. That would be all people. Both Moses and Jesus taught what loving God means. It means loving Him with your whole being, heart, soul, mind, and strength (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Mark 12:30). To get to this depth of love, we must recognize, realize within ourselves, and choose to live out the love God gives us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, for our salvation just so we can have a right relationship with Him and live eternally with Him. When we truly understand the magnitude of His gift of love through the death of His Son, our whole being will compel us to express our great gratitude and love to Him. We will reach deep within ourselves and give from the depths of our being from all parts of ourselves to try to express the depths of our gratitude and love back to Him. This means our love will show, will shine out, in gratitude and obedience to Him to do willing whatever He asks of us. We will scratch the depths of our being to find the last ounce of ourselves to express our love to God. This depth of love is most likely from where Paul loved and served God and from where His love of all people came.

If you are already a believer in Jesus Christ, you now must decide if you love God to the very last ounce of your being and are giving Him everything you are to serve Him willingly in the task for which he has made you ready and to which He called you. Are you eager to do what God asks of you? If not, what keeps you from loving God with absolute obedience? What keeps you from loving people with the love God put in your heart for them? God waits for you to love Him willingly and join Him in sharing the gospel of His righteousness so each person will hear and receive salvation.

If you are not a believer, what in yourself keeps you from accepting God’s gift of salvation from your sins, the power of sin, and the power of death? What is keeping you from accepting the full degree of His love? Today you heard the basics of the Gospel from Paul. The gospel of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection is the power of God for salvation to all who believe. Right now, as an unbeliever, you live under the weight of your wrongdoings. Those wrongdoings separate you from God. He won’t be in your presence because He is holy and you are not. When you confess and believe in Jesus, He makes you holy so you can be with God now and forever. Without His salvation, you live powerless against temptation and death. The only strength you have is your own fortitude, and that is feeble. Sometimes you fail yourself. We all do. But, with the strength of God’s power, His dunamis, you would no longer have to struggle. God would give you the power of Himself through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit if you claim it, hold onto it, and walk through life with it. As a Christian, you would have power over sin. He gives you power over death. That means your soul would not die, be separated permanently from God, but will be with Him in His presence for eternity.

We each must decide what we will do about and with God’s love given through the sacrificial death of His Son, Jesus. Will you accept it? Will you stand in the power He offers? Will you show your love and gratitude to God by obeying His calling? Or, will you hold back and not accept His righteousness or not accept His calling?

Are you eager, ready and willing, to answer the call of God’s righteousness?

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in this flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me, and I do not know which to choose.” [Philippians 1:21-22 (NASB)]