Tag: God

Digging in Deeper: Romans 8:14-17

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“For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba,  Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In his magnum opus, Knowing God, author and theologian, J.I. Packer, argues that adoption is the single most important lens through which we should understand the New Testament. It is the theme that lies at the heart of everything else we find there. Without that idea, none of the rest of it makes the kind of sense it should. And in making this argument, he points most emphatically to this passage. God loves us so much that He wants us to be a part of His family. Let’s explore what Paul introduces to us here and why it is so critically important to understand.

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Morning Musing: Romans 8:3-4

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“For what the law could not do since it was weakened by the flesh, God did. He condemned sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh as a sin offering, in order that the law’s requirement would be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The Old Testament seems complicated. More specifically, the Old Testament Law of Moses seems complicated. There are just so many rules to keep (613 to be exact). How is someone supposed to get (and stay) right with God when it seems like you are always going to be breaking some law or another. It feels like the whole thing was just set up to condemn us. Well, as Paul has already talked about, that isn’t the case, but it became the case because of sin. Thankfully, God fixed that through Jesus. Let’s look here with Paul at how.

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:6-11

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“For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be rendered powerless so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all time; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

As you read through Romans 6, Paul repeats himself. He makes one basic point and then drives it into our heads almost relentlessly. The reason for this is simple: This stuff is crucial to understand if we are going to properly understand the Gospel. And the point he makes is one we have talked about before. Apart from Christ, we are slaves to sin. In Christ, we are free. Let’s explore this with Paul here a little further.

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Morning Musing: Romans 5:20-21

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“The law came along to multiply the trespass. But where sin multiplied, grace multiplied even more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Every relationship has boundaries. Those boundaries exist whether we are aware of them or not. If we violate those boundaries ignorantly, we may not necessarily be intentionally at fault of anything, but we still have departed from the relationship. Knowing exactly where the boundaries are is helpful, but it also makes our transgressing them all the more problematic because now we know what we are doing. When God gave the Law He made the problem of sin even worse than it already was. But He also set the stage for even more powerfully making things right. Let’s explore this together as we finish off chapter five today.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 5:12-14

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“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned. In fact, sin was in the world before the law, but sin is not charged to a person’s account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam’s transgression. He is a type of the Coming One.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

How did sin get here? And how does it work? Does everyone sin individually, or is there such a thing as corporate guilt? An orthodox doctrine of sin is an important thing to have, but also a difficult one to clarify. It’s difficult because it involves asking some hard questions. It’s difficult because it involves answering them as well. As Paul keeps rolling forward in his exploration of the Gospel, he is next offering some important insight on an historically orthodox understanding of sin. Let’s take a look at what he has to say.

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