Romans

Romans 12:1-16

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What Difference Does It Make?

Romans 12:1-16

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. – Romans 12:1 NLT

Paul launches this next section of his letter with the words, “And so….” Some translations use the word, “Therefore….” Which reminds me of an old adage that says, when you see the word, therefore, in Scripture, always ask what it’s there for. What is the writer trying to tell you? It is almost always used as a transition from one train of thought to another. It is used to tie when section to another, and so it is here as Paul makes his transition from the end of chapter 11 to the beginning of chapter 12. Up until this point in his letter Paul has been stressing the sin of man and the grace of God. He has stressed the universality of man’s sinful state and his inability to save Himself. He has spoken of God’s gracious gift of salvation made possible through His Son’s death on the cross. He has contrasted faith and works. He has reminded his readers of the freedom found in Christ – freedom from having to try and keep the Law in order to have a right relationship with God. He has written of God’s mercy, love and faithfulness – illustrated in His plan to fulfill every single promise He has made to the people of Israel – despite their constant unfaithfulness to Him.

And then Paul says, “And so….” With all of that in mind, here is what we are to do. This is where Paul moves from the theological to the practical. As a result of all that he has told us about God, man, sin, salvation, the Spirit, freedom, grace, mercy, eternity, and love, here is how we should respond. Paul pleads with us to give our bodies to God as living and holy sacrifices. Why? Because of all He has done for us. Paul is going to begin with what our reaction should be to God. That is the most important relationship any man can have. All of our other earthly relationships with human beings are insignificant and immaterial if we do not have a right relationship with God. So Paul begs us to respond to God’s mercy, grace, goodness, sovereignty and love with an attitude of willing submission. We are to offer ourselves to Him for His use. In doing so we are acknowledging that we belong to Him and Him alone. Elsewhere Paul wrote, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NLT). But it is interesting to notice that Paul’s emphasis is on the group, not the individual in his letter to the Romans. He pleads with them to give “your bodies” as a living sacrifice. It is to be a group effort, not an individual one. Paul is going to stress what it looks like to live as a holy sacrifice to God and it is going to involve our interactions with one another as believers and our relationships with non-believing world in which we live.

Paul exhorts them to NOT copy the behaviors and customs of this world. As a group, they are to live lives that are set apart and distinct from the world around them. Part of living as a sacrifice to God is allowing Him to do with us as He wishes. And part of God’s desire for us is to transform the way we think. He wants to renew our minds and transform us into the likeness of His Son. And there’s no better way to see that transformation take place than in our relationships with one another. Paul makes it painfully practical. “Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us” (Romans 12:3b NLT). When God starts changing the way we think, we will see ourselves and others differently. Rather than living lives marked by pride and self-centeredness, we will begin to display humility toward others and develop a healthy assessment of who we are in Christ. We will understand that God has placed us in the body of Christ, given us gifts for the good of the body, and challenged us to live with and love one another. And we are not to live hypocritically or insincerely. Our love must be real, involving self-sacrifice and eager enthusiasm. As God transforms our way of thinking, we will begin to even bless those who persecute us. In other words, we’ll develop the capacity to love the unloving and unlovely. We’ll learn to love in ALL of our relationships and in all circumstances, developing a harmony and unity that is not of this world.

That kind of living is holy, sacrificial living. It is pleasing and honoring to God, because it reveals the very power of God in our lives. No one can live and love that way unless God makes it possible. It takes the saving work of Jesus Christ and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit to bring about that kind of radical transformation. But we must choose to offer ourselves as sacrifices to God, for Him to do with as He wishes. It all begins there – with a willing submission to the will of God. We must constantly give in to Him so that He can impart into us. In the end, this kind of life is the greatest form of worship to God.

Father, continue to show me how to live out this passage. It is so easy to talk about being living sacrifices, but it is another thing to live it out in real life. I keep wanting to crawl down off the altar. But I really do want to see You continue to change the way I think and transform my behavior. And I realize that the greatest illustration of those things taking place will be in how I react to and relate with others. That includes not only my fellow believers, but the lost world around me. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 11:25-36

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Our Unfathomable, Yet Reliable God.

Romans 11:25-36

Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! – Romans 11:33 NLT

Who are we to question the ways of God? I find it fascinating how often we, as mere men, want to take on God, putting Him on trial – trying to determine whether we agree with or approve of His ways. We debate whether God could or would do something. We argue over whether God has the right to act in a certain way, because it offends our sensibilities or our understanding of right and wrong. But when we doubt God or try to judge Him based on our limited human understanding, we reveal just how little we really know Him. It shows how we have tried to put God in a box in an effort to make Him more comprehensible and believable. But Paul would argue that His God is greater than our capacity to understand. “How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways!” (Romans 11:33b NLT). Paul knew enough about God to know better than to try and explain away His actions or question His logic. God does not have to answer to us or even explain Himself to us.

As Paul wraps up his discussion regarding God’s plans for the people of Israel, he wants his readers to understand that God is not obligated to do things in a way that we can understand. He does not have to appeal to our sense of fairness. God is holy, righteous, and completely sovereign. He can and will do what He wants to do, and whatever He does is always right. His treatment of the people of Israel, while it may appear harsh in our eyes, is completely just and wholly necessary. God had a plan in place that included their rejection of His own Son as their Messiah. He was not caught off guard or surprised by their actions. He knew they would refuse to accept Him as the Anointed One. God was prepared for their actions and had planned for them in advance. It was all part of His divine will. Their rejection opened up the door for the spread of the Gospel to the Gentiles. But God is not done with the people of Israel. There is a day coming when “the full number of Gentiles comes to Christ” (Romans 11:25b NLT). In other words, there is an apparent limit on the number of people who will accept Christ as their personal Savior. Not ALL will be saved. And only God knows that number. That may sound unfair and capricious to us, but again, who are we to question the justice of God? When that full number is reached, then God will turn His attention back to the people of Israel. He will once again show His favor on them, sending His Son a second time, to restore a large number of the nation of Israel back to a right relationship with Him. “The one who rescues will come from Jerusalem, and he will turn Israel away from ungodliness. And this is my covenant with them, that I will take away their sins” (Romans 11:26-27 NLT). At the second coming of Jesus, God will do what the Israelites could have never have done for themselves – He will change their hardened hearts and give them the capacity to believe in His Son as their Messiah and Savior. Why? Because God is a covenant keeping God. “Yet they are still the people he loves because he chose their ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn” (Romans 11:28-29 NLT).

We may not understand it or even agree with it, but God’s plan is just, righteous, and completely perfect. God does not need or want our advice. He does not require our approval. He does not owe us an explanation. We can’t even fully understand why He chose to save us. But we are grateful that He did. Paul would encourage us to rest in the knowledge of God’s unchanging, holy and righteous character. He can be trusted. He always does what is right. “For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever!” (Romans 11:36 NLT).

Father, I don’t understand Your ways, but I am learning to trust them more and more with each passing day. I can’t fully explain how and why You do things the way You do, but I am trying to rest more and more in Your faithfulness. There are things that happen in my life every day that cause me to doubt and question Your ways, but I am learning to rest in Your sovereign, loving, all-knowing plan for me. You know what is best, whether it looks like it or feels like it at the time. I can trust You. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 11:1-24

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The Faithful God of Israel.

Romans 11:1-24

You, by nature, were a branch cut from a wild olive tree. So if God was willing to do something contrary to nature by grafting you into his cultivated tree, he will be far more eager to graft the original branches back into the tree where they belong. – Romans 11:24 NLT

When reading the book of Romans, especially chapters nine through 11, it is easy to make it all about Jew and Gentile. God, it appears, has rejected one and received the other. But while Paul talks a great deal about these two specific people groups, the real hero of the story is God Himself. Paul has emphasized over and over again the sovereignty and grace of God. He has highlighted God’s undeserved grace and mercy, and made clear the fact that no one, either Jew or Gentile, can earn a right relationship with God. Whether speaking of the nation of Israel or the Gentile nations, it is God who calls, chooses, redeems, restores, and even rejects. But Paul makes it clear that God has NOT rejected the people of Israel. “I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin” (Romans 11:1 NLT). Paul himself was a Jew and he most certainly had not been rejected by God. He had been chosen by God and had had a life-transforming encounter with Jesus Christ. He was a living example of the fact that God had not completely rejected the people of Israel. Paul reminds his readers that God has been carefully and faithfully sparing a remnant of His chosen people for generations. “…a few of the people of Israel have remained faithful because of God’s grace — his undeserved kindness in choosing them. And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is — free and undeserved” (Romans 11:5-6 NLT). As it was with the Gentiles, so it would be with the Jews. A right relationship with God was to be solely based on grace, not works or effort. No one was going to earn their way into good favor with God, not even the people of God, the Jews.

As a result, a majority of the Jews had failed to be restored to God. Unwilling to believe that salvation was available through the death of a single man, they continued to pursue a right relationship with God through attempting to keep the law – a pursuit that Paul considered foolish and impossible. But Paul explains that the rebellion of the people of Israel and their rejection of God had a divine purpose. “Most of the people of Israel have not found the favor of God they are looking for so earnestly. A few have — the ones God has chosen — but the hearts of the rest were hardened. As the Scriptures say, ‘God has put them into a deep sleep. To this day he has shut their eyes so they do not see, and closed their ears so they do not hear'” (Romans 11:7-8 NLT). According to Paul, this was all God’s doing. But why? What was His purpose in hardening their hearts, shutting their eyes, and closing their ears? “God made salvation available to the Gentiles” (Romans 11:11 NLT). That was the purpose. Their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah and Savior opened the doors to the Gentiles. This had always been part of God’s plan. Even long before the moment God made His promise to Abraham to bless all the nations of the earth through him, He had planned make His grace and the gift of His Son available to all nations. And He would use the rejection of Jesus by the Jews as a springboard to for spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ to all the nations. Jesus, a Jew, would be the Savior of all the nations, not just His own people. And yet, God did not completely abandon the people of Israel. As Paul writes, they had not fallen beyond recovery. Their disobedience made salvation available to the Gentiles. But the day is coming when many of Paul’s Jewish brothers and sisters will turn to Christ. “For since their rejection meant that God offered salvation to the rest of the world, their acceptance will be even more wonderful. It will be life for those who were dead!” (Romans 11:15 NLT). Why? Because of the faithfulness and mercy of God. He is not done with the people of Israel. He will spare and restore a remnant of the Jewish people, using the Gentiles as a means to create jealousy among them. In all of this, Paul can see the divine hand of God, working behind the scenes in ways we can’t understand. God chose to make the Israelites a special people in His eyes. He raised up the Savior from among them, but they ended up rejecting Him. But their rejection of the Messiah made possible the spread of the Gospel to the Gentiles. And the blessings of God upon the Gentiles who received Christ as their Savior would be the impetus behind the future salvation of many Jews. And the day is coming when the salvation of the Jews will lead to even more Gentiles coming to faith in Christ. This whole section is really about the faithfulness and sovereignty of God. It is about His divine plan for mankind and how He intends to fulfill that plan and keep His promises to both the Jews and the Gentiles.

We cannot fully understand the ways of God. But it is dangerous for us to question His methods or means. We may not understand what God is doing, but we have no right to doubt His plan or purposes. He knows what He is doing. We can trust that He will do what He has promised and complete what He has begun. We have a limited, short-term perspective. He is eternal and has a long-term view that knows how all this works out in the end. There is a method to God’s seeming madness. He is purposeful and faithful. He is righteous and just. His ways are not our ways. His wisdom is beyond our understanding. But we can rest in the fact that God has everything under control and nothing can prevent His sovereign plan from one day coming to complete and perfect fruition.

Father, You are in control. You are sovereign and have all things held firmly in Your hands. That includes my future and the future of the people of Israel. You are faithful and always keep Your promises. You never go back on Your word or fail to do what You have said You will do. Thank You for allowing me to be a part of Your plan. Not because I deserved it, but because of Your grace and mercy. Thank You that You are going to one day restore the people of Israel. You are not done yet. Your work is not complete. But one day it will be. And I rest in the assurance that You are in complete control, whether I can see it or sense it. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 10:16-21

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Hearing, Yet Not Believing.

Romans 10:16-21

So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ. – Romans 10:17 NLT

As a Jew, Paul had a special love for the people of Israel. He knew that God held a special place in His heart for them and desired greatly that they come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. And that’s why Paul was so insistent that they hear the Good News. He knew that the only way the people of Israel could be made right with God was through placing their faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. They had to believe the testimony regarding Jesus Christ and His claim to be the Son of God, their long-awaited Messiah, and the Savior of the world. In other words, they had to express faith in Jesus Christ, just as the Gentiles did. But many of the Jews in Paul’s day had failed to accept the Good News about Jesus Christ. They had refused to believe. So was it a matter of them not having heard the message? Had they not been given ample opportunity to hear the Good News? Paul answers his own question and exclaims, “Yes, they have!” He then quotes Psalm 19:4. “The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world” (Psalm 19:4 NLT). By the time Paul was writing his letter to the Romans, he and others had spread the message regarding Jesus Christ throughout the known world. The Gospel had spread rapidly ever since the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Converted Jews and Gentiles had returned to their own towns and cities, ready to share the testimony regarding Christ to their own communities. Christianity had spread rapidly, which is one of the reasons that Paul, in his pre-conversion life, had been hired full-time by the Jewish religious leaders to track down and persecute Christians every where he could find them.

Paul is not saying that the message of salvation had been spread to every area of the globe, and that every individual had been given the opportunity to hear about Jesus and accept God’s offer of salvation. But he is saying that the Jews were without excuse. They had heard. They had been given the promises regarding the coming Messiah in their own Scriptures. They had read the writings of the prophets regarding the Anointed One. And they were familiar with the claims of Jesus to be the Messiah and the teachings of the early Christians regarding the new requirement of faith as the means to be made right with God. They could not plead ignorance. Paul even claims that the very fact that Gentiles were coming to faith in Christ was an attempt by God to make the people of Israel jealous and open their eyes. Again, he turns to the Hebrew Scriptures and quotes Deuteronomy 32:21. “I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation.I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.” As in the day of Moses, God was going to bless non-Jews in an attempt to awaken the people of Israel to their own rebellion and God’s hand of cursing upon them. Ever since Jesus’ resurrection from the dead and the launch of the Church at Pentecost, the hand of God’s blessing could be seen upon the Gentiles as more and more of them accepted Christ as their Savior. And yet, the majority of the Jews continued to refuse Him as their Savior. They were not acting out of ignorance, but outright rebellion. Again, Paul turns to the Hebrew Scriptures in the writing of the prophet Isaiah. “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious” (Isaiah 65:2 NLT). God had been faithfully calling the people of Israel to Himself. Paul had been aggressively preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Jewish community everywhere he went. But they remained disobedient and rebellious. As a result, God had temporarily rejected His people. He had taken His blessings to the Gentiles. But that rejection was not to be permanent. Chapter 11 will unpack God’s gracious, merciful plan for the people of Israel. He is not done with them. In spite of their rejection and rebellion of Him, He will extend mercy and grace. He will keep every promise He has made to them. In fact, there were some Jews coming to faith in Christ, even in Paul’s day. There was a remnant who were accepting Christ as their Messiah and Savior. But the day is coming when God will turn His favor back on the people of Israel and He will restore their hearts to Himself. The requirement will still be the same. They will still have to accept Jesus as their Savior. They will still have to give up any and all attempts at self-righteousness and rely on the righteousness that Jesus provides on their behalf. But they will return and God will restore them. Because He is a faithful God.

Father, it always encourages me to be reminded of just how faithful You are. In spite of all that the people of Israel have done to You and how often they have rejected Your love and mercy, You continue to hold to Your promises regarding them. You fully intend to keep the covenant You made with them. Because You are faithful. You are the promise-keeping God. You do what You say. You fulfill what You promise. Never let me forget that. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 10:1-15

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News Worth Appreciating and Sharing.

Romans 10:1-15

But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? – Romans 10:14 NLT

For nine chapters, Paul has made a big deal out of the Good News. He has been the undeserving recipient of it. He lives day by day in the power made available through it. He has spent his life telling others about it. He even longs for his own nation, the people of Israel, to discover the joy and freedom of salvation through Christ, rather than through their continued efforts at trying to keep the law of Moses. But in spite of his efforts to share the Good News with the Jewish people, they didn’t respond favorably. He wrote, “they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law” (Romans 10:3 NLT). But their refusal to accept the Good News never stopped Paul from sharing it. Why? Because he knew from first-hand experience the freedom, joy, peace, contentment, and hope it could bring. So he preached the message of faith relentlessly, tirelessly, and obsessively. He wanted anyone and everyone to know that “it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved” (Romans 10:10 NLT). He told anyone who would listen, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13 NLT). He didn’t worry about whether they were going to respond positively or negatively. He saw his job as that of sharing and proclaiming. It was God’s job to save.

Paul saw his role as a messenger of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as vital and non-negotiable. He had been shown grace and mercy from God. He had been given a second chance. And he wanted to extend that same offer of redemption and reconciliation with God to every person with whom he came into contact – whether that person was a Jew or a Gentile, rich or poor, slave or free, influential or inconsequential. Paul believed what Isaiah 52:7 said: “How beautiful are the feet of the messengers who bring good news!” He realized that he had a responsibility to tell others what had happened to him and for him. The Good News has to be proclaimed. The message of salvation needs to be shared. Paul’s logic is impeccable and impenetrable. “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent” (Romans 10:14-15 NLT). Paul knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he had been sent. Not long after his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, he had received a God-appointed visit from Ananias, who told him, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard” (Acts 22:14-15 NLT). Not long after that, Jesus Himself told Paul, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:21 NLT). And Paul took his commission seriously. He went to the Gentiles. He told everyone what he had seen and heard. He gave his testimony of life change. He shared how men could be made right with God. He witnessed to the life-transformative power of God made available through the death of Jesus Christ. And many believed. Many called on the name of the Lord and were saved. Many confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believed in their hearts that God had raised him from the dead, and they were saved.

But Paul wasn’t the first and last messenger. He wasn’t the only one to receive a commission. Jesus had told the disciples, just prior to His ascension, “And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NLT). Matthew records these well-known words from Jesus that have stood as the commission and calling for every Christ-follower since the earliest days of the church until now. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20. We have news to share. We have a commission to accomplish. We have Good News to announce to the nations. But could the reason many of us fail to share be because we fail to truly appreciate what we have received? Does the Good News mean as much to us as it did to Paul? Are we blown away by the grace and mercy of God and can’t help but tell others what He has done for us – in spite of us? Paul was a transformed man. He was truly free. He had lived much of his life trying to make himself right with God, but had been released from the dead-end pursuit by the unmerited, unearned favor of God. He couldn’t help but tell others what God had done for him. “I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!” (1Corinthians 9:16b NLT). What about you? Are you compelled by God to share the Good News? Would you ever consider it “terrible” should you NOT be able to share? Paul was driven by a passion to see people escape condemnation and death, not just go to heaven. He was motivated by a strong desire to see people released from captivity to sin and self-righteousness. His own salvation became the his greatest motivation for telling others about Jesus. His gratitude to God flowed out in his attitude of compassion for others.

Father, may my awareness of the magnitude of Your gracious gift motivate me to share what I have received with others. Give me a growing passion for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ to anyone and everyone I meet. My job is not to save anyone, but to share with everyone. Thank You that someone told me. Now may I be a willing witness to others. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 9:16-33

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The Mysterious, Yet Merciful Ways of God

Romans 9:16-33

Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” – Romans 9:25 NLT

Paul has been emphasizing the point that God shows mercy on whomever He so chooses. And he knows that this difficult-to-understand reality about God is going to cause some of his readers to cry, “Foul!” They’re going to wrestle with the apparent fairness of a God who chooses some and not others. And in doing so, they will really be questioning the justice of God. But if God ever failed to be just, He would cease to be God. Yes, from our limited perspective, it would appear at times that God is acting in ways that are inconsistent with His character. But we can’t always see the bigger picture. We don’t have the ability to see what God is doing behind the scenes, orchestrating events and even sovereignly ordaining the affairs of men to accomplish His divine will. Paul uses the example of Pharaoh. Over and over again, God had spared Pharaoh, in spite of his open rebellion against God and his ongoing resistance to release the people of Israel from captivity. God would have been just in punishing Pharaoh for his stubborn opposition and open insolence, but God spared his life so that He might accomplish His will for the people of Israel. God always has a purpose behind His actions. What may appear to us as unfair and unjust can always be written up to the problem of our own limited perspective.

It is so easy for us to question God’s motives and doubt His goodness based on what we see. As human beings, we over-value our own importance, and under-appreciate God’s sovereign will. We look up from our restricted vantage point here on earth and shake our fist at God, demanding that He explain Himself. Which is why Paul uses the analogy of a potter working with clay. “When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:21-23 NLT). The potter has the right to do as he wishes with the clay. He need not ask for permission or take a vote. He fashions the clay, forming it into vessels of various kinds, to be used according to his own purposes and plans. The same is true when it comes to God’s interactions with mankind. God has created us and He is fully just and right to do with us as He sees fit. Paul has clearly indicated that all men stand as guilty and condemned before God and worthy of death. All men and women have sinned and fallen short of God’s glorious standard. And yet, God has chosen to redeem some. He has chosen to show mercy on some and not on others. The very fact that God shows mercy on any should blow us all away. That God would extend His grace and mercy to Gentiles, when it appeared all along that His chosen people had been the Israelites, should show us that God is anything but unfair. Remember that God’s mercy and grace are always undeserved and unmerited. No one has the right to demand God’s goodness or should expect to receive God’s grace. Jew and Gentile alike, stand as guilty before God. “No one is righteous—not even one” (Romans 9:10 NLT). “No one does good, not a single one” (Romans 9:12 NLT). Even the nation of Israel, the chosen people of God, were undeserving of God’s love and mercy. In spite of all that God had done for them, they continually and openly rebelled against Him. Yet, while He would have been justified in destroying them for their rebellion, God regularly preserved a remnant of them, so that His divine will could be fulfilled. God would have been fully just had He decided to destroy the entire nation, but He had made a promise to Abraham, and His divine character required that He keep that promise.

As Gentile believers, we stand before God as fully righteous and restored to a right relationship with Him, not because we deserved it or somehow earned it. We weren’t trying to keep God’s righteous standards, and yet we were shown mercy and received His grace. The Jews spent generations attempting to keep God’s righteous law in order to make themselves right before, but failed time and time again. But God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem both Jews and Gentiles. Neither group deserved to be shown mercy. Neither group was worthy of God’s grace. “But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)” (Ephesians 2:4-5 NLT). The very fact that God saves any of us should amaze and astound us. Somehow we have mistakenly assumed that God can be good only if He saves ALL. But we fail to remember that God would be fully just and right if He destroyed ALL. All men are deserving of death. All have sinned and fallen short of His glory. All are under a sentence of death. But God, in His mercy, has chosen to redeem some. He has graciously provided a way of escape for a remnant. And rather than rejoice in that amazing display of grace, we mistakenly and ungratefully question His goodness and fairness. And yet, the very fact that the Jews of Jesus’ day rejected Him as their Messiah and refused to accept Him as their Savior and as the Son of God, opened up the door so that we as Gentiles might be recipients of the Good News and the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Unfair? Hardly. Difficult to understand? Most certainly. But amazing grace nonetheless. God’s ways are not our ways. He is God and He does not need to report to us or explain Himself to us. Like a lump of clay, we are in no position to question the motives or mind of God. “Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that he needs to pay it back?” (Romans 11:33-35 NLT).

Father, while I may not always understand Your ways, I am growing ever more comfortable with them. I still question how and why You do things at times, but I am learning to trust You because You know what You are doing. You are God and I am not. You have a perspective that I do not. What appears as unfair to me, is right, just and holy from Your vantage point. The day will come when I am finally able to see things the way You do. “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity” (1 Corinthians 13:12 NLT). In the meantime, give me a growing trust in Your sovereign, divine and holy will. You know what is best and You can be trusted at all times. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Roman 9:1-15

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God’s Mercy and Israel.

Romans 9:1-15

Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” – Romans 9:14-15 NLT

In spite of being the apostle to the Gentiles, Paul was an Israelite and proud of it. He referred to himself as “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” Prior to his conversion, he had been a Pharisee and an expert in the law of Moses. He knew his Old Testament Scriptures well and loved the people of Israel greatly. In fact, his “heart was filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief” (Romans 9:2 NLT) for his people, his Jewish brothers and sisters. He even expressed a willingness to be cut off from Christ – if it meant that some of them would be saved. Virtually every time Paul went into a Gentile city to share the Gospel, he made it a point to go to the local synagogue first, in order to share the Good News regarding Jesus Christ with his own people. He knew that God was not done with them yet. He knew that they were still the chosen people of God, to whom God had revealed His glory, entered into covenants, and received His promises. Even Jesus Christ had been born an Israelite. So what was God’s intentions for the people of Israel? And speaking of His promises to them, had God failed to keep them? Paul answers with a resounding, “No!”

God had chosen the people of Israel for a reason, and we find that reason recorded in Exodus 19:5-6: “‘Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me. And you will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation.’ This is the message you must give to the people of Israel.” But they had failed. Their history is a record of disobedience and rebellion against God. They had not kept their end of the Mosaic covenant. Even when they got into the Promised Land, they had failed to obey God and remove the occupants of the land. As a result, they intermarried with them, and worshiped their gods. Paul’s whole point in all of this is to remind his readers that even among God’s chosen people, the Israelites, not all would be saved. Just as God had chosen the Israelites as His own, from among all the peoples of the earth, He would choose some from among the Israelites to be saved. In order to be made right with God, the people of Israel were going to have to accept the same free gift that had been offered to the Gentiles – the gift of Jesus Christ. “Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!” (Romans 9:6 NLT). That’s a bold statement, and a controversial one, as much today as it was in Paul’s day. For generations, the people of Israel had counted on the fact that they were God’s chosen people. They even allowed themselves to believe that this special distinction was like having a “get-out-of-jail-free card” that allowed them to sin with impunity. They somehow believed God was obligated to bless them because they were descendants of Abraham. Interestingly enough, John the Baptist, when confronted by the Pharisees and religious leaders who had come to watch him baptize in the wilderness, spoke these harsh words: “Prove by the way you live that you have repented of your sins and turned to God. Don’t just say to each other, ‘We’re safe, for we are descendants of Abraham.’ That means nothing, for I tell you, God can create children of Abraham from these very stones” (Matthew 3:8-9 NLT). And here in Romans 9, Paul says, “Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children” (Romans 9:7 NLT). Just being a descendant of Abraham didn’t make someone an heir to the promise. It was through Isaac that the promise was to come. It would be through Jacob and not Esau that the promise would flow. Paul is trying to show that God chose to bring the fulfillment of the promise that He made to Abraham through a specific line of his descendants. God’s focus was not just on a particular people, but on one who would be born through a branch of Abraham’s family tree – all according to God’s foreordained plan. Paul clarifies this point in his letter to the Galatians. “God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say ‘to his children,’ as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says ‘to his child’ – and that, of course, means Christ” (Galatians 3:16 NLT). Christ was the key. God was going to bless all the nations through Jesus Christ. And He would come through the line of Isaac. He would be a descendant of Jacob, not Esau.

Paul’s point? Just being born an Israelite was not enough. Being one of Abraham’s physical descendants did not necessarily make one a child of God. And Paul knows what some would conclude from this statement. “Then doesn’t that make God unfair?” But he replies, “Of course not!” All the way back to the days of Moses, God had made it clear, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose” (Romans 9:14 NLT). God had chosen Abraham. God had chosen Isaac. God had chosen Jacob. God had chosen Moses. God had chosen David. All along the way, God had made clear choices when it came to whom He would reveal Himself. He even chose Mary to bear His Son. God had also chosen to have His Son be born as an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God’s choice in all these things had nothing to do with merit or worth. He chose Abraham, not because he was worthy, but simply because it was His divine will. He chose Isaac and Jacob, not because they were somehow more deserving, but because that was part of His plan. God chooses whom He will. He shows mercy on whomever He wills. This whole section has to do with the divine will and sovereign control of God in the lives of men. Salvation is God’s doing. He shows mercy and compassion on whomever He chooses, never as a result of their worth or merit, but simply because He chooses to do so. Paul will continue to unpack this topic in the verses to come. His goal seems to be to get us to understand that God’s incredible grace and mercy is unearned and undeserved. Like salvation, it is a gift, provided by a loving, gracious and merciful God – in spite of us, not because of us.

Father, something in our wiring makes us believe that we somehow deserve to be chosen by You. We want to believe that we are somehow good enough to be considered as recipients of Your grace and love. But if we deserve it, it ceases to be grace. You have chosen to extend the gift of Your Son to us – in spite of us. You have divinely ordained that we receive Your mercy, not because we deserve it, but because You have graciously chosen to extend it to us. Never let us lose sight of that reality. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 8:31-39

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A Love That Cost, And Lasts.

Romans 8:31-39

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. – Romans 8:39 NLT

How great is God’s love for you? This seems to be the gist of Paul’s point in the closing section of chapter eight. He reminds us, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?” (Romans 8:31b NLT). God is on our side. He has chosen us, sent His Son to die for us and, as a result of Christ’s substitionary death of the cross, restored us to a right relationship with Himself. All as an expression of His great love for us. So if God loved us that much, what could ever stand in His way when it comes to Him finishing what He has begun in our lives? “Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?” (Romans 8:32 NLT). In other words, won’t God complete His ongoing act of transformation in our lives? Peter assures us that the answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes!”

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT). God loves us too much to leave us like we are. He loves us too much to allow us to try and live the Christian life in our own power and at the mercy of a host of enemies who would love nothing better than to destroy and defeat us. They can accuse and condemn us all they want, but their efforts are in vain. Because God loves us and His Son sits at His right hand interceding and pleading with God for us.

Nothing and no one can ever separate us from the love of our Father and our Savior. But the problem is that we tend to view God’s love based on what is going on around us. We judge His love according to how well things are going for us. If life is going well, we assume that God must be pleased with us. But let something go wrong in our lives, and we automatically assume that God is upset with us – in other words, He has fallen out of love with us. But Paul would argue against such a conclusion. “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” (Romans 8:35 NLT). Paul answers his own question: “No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:36 NLT). Paul was convinced that absolutely NOTHING could ever separate God’s children from His love. God’s love for us is unlimited. It transcends time and space. He loves us just as much in life as He will love us after death. His love for us is as great today as it will be in eternity. Our location can’t diminish or influence God’s love. Our circumstances can’t determine God’s love for us. The presence of opposition or the reality of difficulties are not determiners of God’s love for us. Paul reminds us, “not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love” (Romans 8:38 NLT). And here’s the really amazing thing. We can’t separate ourselves from God’s love either! You cannot cause God to fall out of love for you. His love is not fickle and fleeting like ours. He doesn’t love you one day and not the next. His love is constant and unchanging.

As we live out our lives on this earth, we must constantly remind ourselves of God’s unwavering love for us. Even as we progress toward Christ-likeness, we will fail and at times, fall away. We will continue to struggle with sin and sometimes give in to the desires of our sin nature. But at no point will God fall out of love for us. The degree of His love was reflected in the death of His Son. He loved us so much that He sent His own Son to die for us. But He raised His Son back to life as a vivid reminder of the kind of power He has at His disposal to finish His complete transformation of our lives. God’s love encompasses our salvation as well as our ultimate glorification. But is also includes our current sanctification. He is loving us even as we live out our lives in this fallen world. We may not always recognize it or feel it, but His love is there nonetheless. And nothing we encounter in this life has the capacity to ever separate us from that love. God will complete what He began. He will love us all the way to the end. “Despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us” (Romans 8:37 NLT).

Father, it is so hard to imagine the kind of love Paul is talking about. I tend to judge Your love based on human standards. I fall in and out of love with people all the time. My love is fickle and fleeting. But Yours is constant and unwavering. You love me in spite of me. You love me consistently and constantly. You love me all the time and my circumstances are not an indicator or barometer of that love. Give me the capacity to recognize and appreciate Your love regardless of what is going on around me. Help me to rest in Your love, even when I have done something that I believe might cause You to “un-love” me. I want to live in Your love. I want to rest in Your love. I want to rejoice in Your love – every day of my life. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 8:1-17

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Life Through the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-17

Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. – Romans 8:5 NLT

Paul had a sin nature. You have a sin nature. I have a sin nature. Every person who has ever lived or is alive now has a sin nature. Even those of who are in Christ. But Paul has made it clear that, because of Christ’s death on the cross, we have been set free from having to live like a slave to sin, constantly giving in to the sinful disposition of our sin natures. While at one time we were totally enslaved and incapable of resisting our own sinful nature, we now have a choice. We have been given the Spirit of God, who resides within us, equipping and empowering us to live lives that are pleasing to Him. He can and will produce a host of good deeds through us and godly fruit within us. But we have to choose to live under his control, rather than willingly giving in to our own selfish sin nature.

Over and over again in this passage, Paul reminds us that we have the “power of the life-giving Spirit” within us. He has freed us from the power of sin that leads to death. He empowers us to no longer follow our sinful nature. But there is a choice that has to be made. We have to want to allow the Holy Spirit to control our minds and our lives. When He is in control, we will tend to think about the things that please Him. When our flesh is in control and our sinful nature raises its ugly head, we will find ourselves thinking about sinful things, inappropriate things, that don’t honor God or reflect our relationship as His sons and daughters. Paul emphasizes that the Spirit that lives within us is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. If that power can restore a dead man to life, it can restore us from spiritual death to new life. That incredible power can be tapped into in order to put to death the deeds of our sinful nature. It can allow us to live new lives – NOW – not just in eternity. We are God’s adopted children right here and now, not just some time in the future. We are heirs to His promises now, not just when Christ returns or He calls us home to heaven. We are beneficiaries of His life-transforming power now, not just at the rapture or when we experience our future glorification.

But Paul makes it clear that, while we will some day enjoy a future glorification and ultimate transformation into Christ-likeness, we are going to go through a period of suffering here and now. We will do daily battle with our sin nature, experiencing the same conflict and struggle that Paul expressed a few verses earlier. “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t. Instead, I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15 NLT). Christ suffered in His life on this planet. He had to do battle with sin and death, and so do we. We must constantly wage war with our sin nature and the enemy who seeks to kill and destroy us. We must wrestle with our inner desire to live for Christ, and the constant call of our sin nature to live for self. We are in a spiritual war zone as long as we live on this earth. But we have a power inside us that can equip us to live differently right here, right now. It will be difficult at times. It will be painful. But it will always result in our ongoing sanctification and ultimate glorification. We must rely on the Spirit of God to provide us with the power from God so that we can live lives that bring honor to God. This life-giving Spirit has not only freed us from sin and death, but empowers us to continue to live in freedom all the days of our lives – as long as we remain under His control and committed to living according to His power and not our own.

Father, thank You for providing Your Holy Spirit and placing Him inside me. I confess that I don’t always acknowledge His presence or tap into His power. I try far too often to live in my own strength and not in His. I do things my way, then wonder why things don’t turn out quite like I had hoped. Continue to show me how I might have victory over sin, not because I work hard at it, but because I have learned to rest in the power of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org

Romans 7:14-25

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The Solution to Sin.

Romans 7:14-25

Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. – Romans 7:24-25 NLT

I have always taken comfort from this passage. Here is Paul, the great apostle and a veritable icon of spiritual virtue and Christian integrity, wrestling with the very same issues that plague me as a believer. Even as a great man of God and powerful spokesperson for the cause of Christ, Paul still struggled with the effects of sin in his life. Like me, Paul still had a sin nature. There was that part of him that was still susceptible to falling back into slavery to sin – even though he had been set free by Christ. Remember what he wrote in chapter six? “Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living” (Romans 6:16 NLT). It’s a simple matter of choice. You can choose to obey God or you can choose to obey sin. And it results in a daily struggle for most of us. Paul said, “I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate” (Romans 7:15 NLT). In other words, in his heart he desires to do the right thing, but his sin nature leads him to do just the opposite. The problem with Paul is the same one that we face. He had an active sin nature. “And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature” (Romans 7:18 NLT).

Paul describes in simple, yet stark, terms, the all-too-common theme of my life. “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t” (Romans 7:18-19 NLT) The important thing to remember in reading these verses is that Paul is pointing out our inability to conquer the presence of indwelling sin through self effort. We may desire to do what is right with all our heart, but our flesh is inherently sinful and incapable of living up to the righteous standards of God. Which Paul describes as a principle of life that manifests in the following way in each of our lives. “…that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong” (Romans 7:21 NLT). It is as if there are two persons living in the same body. One wants to do the will of God, while the other seeks to resist that will and pursue a life of sin. It reminds me of the image of the demon and the angel, sitting on opposite shoulders of an individual – alternately whispering into the poor person’s ears, providing contradictory counsel about what to do in a given situation. Paul describes it as “another power within me that is at war with my mind” (Romans 7:23 NLT). The result for Paul was misery, which caused him to call out for deliverance from this daily, ongoing battle with sin in his life.

Paul knew that he had been set free from slavery to sin by the death of Jesus on the cross. He knew he was a new creature and a new creation. But he also knew, from experience, that he still had a formidable sin nature that waged ongoing war with his new nature. As long as we live on this earth and in these bodies, we will do battle with sin. Jesus’ death did not eradicate sin. He simply ended its strangle hold on our lives. We no longer have to live as unwilling slaves to its influence, obeying its every command and fulfilling its every wish. We have been set free. But sin still remains. And if we try to conquer sin on our own, we will always fail. If we attempt to rely on our own strength, we will always come up short and unsuccessful. Which is why Paul exclaims, “Thank God! The answer is Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:25 NLT). Jesus is the answer for not only our salvation, but our ongoing sanctification. It is He who gave us victory over sin and death, providing us with a way to made right with God. And He continues to do it throughout our lifetimes. He gives me the strength to say no to sin. He has provided me with the Holy Spirit, as a powerful ally in my daily struggle with sin. I need to recognize that it is Jesus who saved me, but who continues to save me from the effects of sin on my life. He alone can deliver me from a life dominated by sin and death. The presence of sin in and around me, should drive me to a greater and greater dependence on Christ and His Spirit within me. I should know from experience that my flesh is weak and incapable of winning the battle alone. But I have Christ on my side and the Holy Spirit within me. I have a resource that provides me with the capacity to do what my heart desires. Paul goes on to describe this capacity as “the power of the life-giving Spirit” who has “freed you from the power of sin that leads to death” (Romans 8:2 NLT). Jesus has provided us with eternal life. The Spirit provides us with the ability to live righteously in our daily lives – here and now. Thank God!

Father, there is a daily battle going on in my life that I far too often fail, because I am attempting to do it all on my own. Continue to show me my daily need for Your Son’s saving power. He didn’t just save me and then leave me on my own, but He gave me His Spirit. I just need to learn to rely more and more on the Spirit’s power and less and less on my own. As I grow increasingly aware of my sin nature, drive me to Your Son and Your Spirit’s indwelling presence in my life. I have the power to live the life You’ve called me to live, and it comes from You, not me. Amen.

Ken Miller
Grow Pastor & Minister to Men
kenm@christchapelbc.org