In part one, we established that it is the book of Romans. We looked at the Gospel and Christ’s place in it – as well as our mandate to spread the Good News. The apostle Paul also revealed what darkness lies ahead for the naysayers.
Now, Paul continues by speaking about faith…
We cannot earn our salvation. It is a gift of God’s grace. And if a gift, there can be no exchange. Salvation is not something that we accomplish. Faith is the vehicle in which we receive the gift of salvation. Faith is not a doing; it is a being and a having.
Faith is not something that we produce; it is a gift that we receive when we accept Christ as the living Son of God:
(…let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Heb. 12:1, 2.)
Jesus gifts us with faith to nurture our eternal relationship with Him. God uses our acceptance and practice of our faith to ‘justify’ (from the Greek dikaioo, meaning to ‘make innocent’) us in His eyes through the Propitiate (from the Greek hilasterion, meaning ‘an atoning victim’), i.e., Christ upon the cross.
Paul begins:
For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” Rm. 4:3 NLT
But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised?
Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and was declared to be righteous – even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. Rm. 4:10, 11. NLT
Clearly, God’s promise is to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was not based upon his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. Rm 4:13 NLT
Thus, Abraham’s faith in God purchased the blessing of faith for all future descendants who would embrace it by coming to Christ:
And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. Rm. 4:23 – 25. NLT
Faith is what unifies us as children of God. It is the centerpiece of God’s covenant promise:
Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
We can rejoice too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Rm. 5:1 – 5. NLT
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Rm. 5:6 NLT
…God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die while we were still sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. Rm. 5:8 – 10. NLT
God is love. He is merciful. Therefore, Love is merciful. Even when we were enemies of God, (enslaved to the ways of the world), He opens His arms through the arms of His Son and scoops up everyone who is willing to be the recipient of His love.
In His limitless mercy, Jehovah sacrificed His Son so that we could be transformed, cleansed of worldly enslavements by His grace, to become children of God, who are called to spend eternity in His love…
When you have a better understanding of what you are placing your faith in, it will be strengthened. The apostle dives right in to do just that, by clarifying what Jesus did, and what it meant.
First and foremost, God sent His Son so that He could undo the sin of Adam, and point you heavenward:
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Rm. 5:12 NLT
But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ.
And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins.
For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. Rm. 5:15 – 17. NLT
So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rm. 5:21 NLT
Through Jehovah’s clemency and grace, He struck down your Adam-derived death sentence by the free gift of Jesus Christ. And the suspension of your sentence is eternal…
If Christ has done all this work and saved us, do we then have liberty to willfully sin?
…should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. Rm. 6:1-4. NLT
We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. Rm. 6:6, 7. NLT
When he died, he died once to break the power of sin. But now that he lives, he lives for the glory of God. So you should also consider yourselves to be dead to the power of sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus.
Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Rm. 6:10 – 14. NLT
Jesus died for all our sins, for all time. Those who receive Him obtain the transformation of righteousness – literally becoming new men and women in Christ. In response, we are called to walk in God’s ways as best we can.
However, our flesh will not give up its cravings. There will be moments when our will is weak and we give into them. Yet we can always tap into the resurrection power of Christ to help us oppose sin and reduce our transgressions to a minimum. God promises us that He will always make a way to escape our potential sins. (See 1 Cor. 10:13)
If we do slip, (and we will, repeatedly), we can present ourselves to God with confession and repentance for a cleaned slate…
Next time, we’ll see that even Paul wars with sin.
Goodnight and God bless.