Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Romans 6:19

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“I am using a human analogy because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you offered the parts of yourselves as slaves to impurity, and to greater and greater lawlessness, so now offer them as slaves to righteousness, which results in sanctification.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Welcome back! I know there was a post yesterday, but I wrote that one almost two weeks ago. Today we’re back to our normal, day-of-posting writing. It was a good week away, but I’m glad to be back with you digging into the Scriptures together. Trying to get our minds around what it looks like to live the new life in Christ isn’t easy. What Paul offers here is a bit of an explanation. It’s about not doing one thing, and committing ourselves actively to do another. Let’s explore what he has to say as we continue our Romans journey today.

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Digging in Deeper: 2 Corinthians 3:12

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“Since, then, we have such a hope, we act with great boldness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A few weeks ago I was in the Lego Store with my family and saw their Bumblebee set. I’m not talking about the bug. I’m talking about the Transformer, great warrior, and loyal friend of Optimus Prime. It may be one of the cooler sets I’ve built because it actually transforms from a VW Bug to a robot. It’s sitting on my desk in robot mode now, but I switch it up every now and then just for fun. I love Transformers. I also love cartoons. Because of this, I was most excited to see the new Transformers movie, Transformers One. I didn’t get to catch it in theaters because life, but I finally got to watch it recently. Let’s talk about it.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 6:3-5

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“Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of his resurrection.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I am a Baptist preacher. We Baptists love baptism. It’s kind of in the name. And when we say the word, we mean it with its original Greek meaning. The word batidzo, from which our English word is merely a transliteration rather than a translation, means to immerse something in water, not to merely sprinkle some water over it. One of the two things that makes a Baptist church a Baptist church is a requirement that a person has been baptized before they can be a member. Yet as important as the practice is to us, we didn’t invent it. In fact, Christians generally didn’t invent it. Lots of religions used some form of baptism as an initiatory and cleansing rite. We simply took something that was already in existence and added our own unique symbolism to it. Here we find Paul talking about some of that symbolism. Let’s walk through this with him.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:19

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“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

About halfway through Jesus’ earthly ministry, He took His disciples on a little field trip. They went deep into some nearby Gentile territory to a region that was about as pagan as it could be. It was pagan, and it had been pagan for a very long time. They were near the city of Caesarea Philippi, named both for the Emperor as well as the grandson of Herod the Great who ruled over the region. They were not far from the site of an ancient shrine to the Greek god Pan, located in a cave that was believed to be one of a handful of entrances to the underworld, also known as the “Gates of Hades.” There, when the distractions of home were about as far from their minds as they could be, Jesus asked them a question: Who do you say that I am? This led into a key confession from Simon whose name was there changed to Peter. Even more importantly than that, Jesus revealed to them His plans to leave behind an institution that would carry on His work when He departed from them. This institution would be known as the church, and this is perhaps the most foundational passage in the Scriptures as far as shaping our understanding of what the church is and what it should be doing. You could write a whole book on these few verses, but today, I want to explore just one idea Jesus introduced and an implication it has for what the church should look like today.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 5:15-17

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“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if by the one man’s trespass the many died, how much more have the grace of God and the gift which comes through the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed to the many. And the gift is not like the one man’s sin, because from one sin came the judgment, resulting in condemnation, but from many trespasses came the gift, resulting in justification. If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

While he was alive, Steve Jobs was Apple. It really wasn’t possible to think of one without the other. Today, Tesla or SpaceX are Elon Musk. When you think of either of those companies, his is the first name that comes to mind. There’s a reason, after all, that Tesla dealerships and vehicles have been the recipients of violent protests recently as Musk has risen to the status of public enemy number one for the political and cultural left. There are some people who serve as representative heads of an organization. Sometimes that’s on purpose on their part. Other times it’s just how things happen to fall out. In this next part of Paul’s letter to the Roman believers, he’s talking about two people who became representative heads of something much bigger than a single organization. Let’s unpack what he’s saying together.

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