Tag: Grace

Morning Musing: Romans 8:2

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“…because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In Paul’s letter to the churches in the region of Galatia (modern-day southern Turkey), he speaks at length about the freedom we have in Christ. But what exactly are we freed from? We know from the marvelous declaration Paul makes at the beginning of the chapter that we are freed from condemnation. Here, Paul spells out in a bit more detail what that means. Let’s talk about following Jesus and real freedom.

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Morning Musing: Romans 7:12-13

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“So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Therefore, did what is good become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, in order to be recognized as sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment, sin might become sinful beyond measure.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I love a good mystery story. I tend to let myself get taken into the story such that I’m fully along for the ride. I rarely figure the best ones out until right at the end, which, in a really good mystery, should always be the case. One of the best I’ve ever seen is the movie, The Usual Suspects, starring Kevin Spacey. Spacey plays a criminal who, after being arrested, convinces the police with an elaborate—and entirely false—story that he is innocent even though he was the mastermind behind the whole thing. One of the best lines from the movie is a quote attributed to a 19th century French poet and essayist, Charles Baudelaire. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” When we become convinced that evil isn’t really evil, that sin isn’t really a thing, we find ourselves able to justify all sorts of things. Law serves as the only effective restraint when we walk that path. Sin, though, is bad enough stuff it can corrupt even that. Let’s talk a bit more today about the relationship of sin and the law.

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Morning Musing: Romans 6:1-2

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“What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? (CSB – Read the chapter)

When you write a lot of things, you occasionally find when you go to write something new that you’ve written it before. That happened a couple of weeks ago as I was starting to studying Romans 6 in preparation for writing about it as we continue our journey. More specifically, I discovered that I had written about these two verses before. I also found myself agreeing with what I said then. So, with some updates after six years, and for the first time ever in nearly eight years of writing this blog, here’s a repeat of an old post.

What should be the relationship of a follower of Jesus to sin? Obviously we shouldn’t do it, but let’s be honest: a simple “ought not” isn’t usually sufficient to keep us from it. We need to understand the why behind the ought before we’re going to wrap our hearts and minds around it to a sufficient degree that it begins to have the kind of power in our lives it needs to have. Here in beginning of Romans 6, after Paul has just been telling us about the power of grace in light of the power of sin, the apostle explores this very idea. His treatment may not be exhaustive, but it is powerful. Let’s start unpacking this today, and continue with Paul on the idea over the next several days.

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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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Morning Musing: Romans 5:9-11

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“How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The first step in wrapping our hearts and minds around the Gospel is accepting our need for salvation. That’s why Paul spends what we know of as the first two and a half chapters of the letter here making the case for the just condemnation of all people regardless of any distinctions (for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God). Because sin and judgment are without distinction, so is salvation. The salvation in Christ is for all those who put their faith in Him as Lord (for we are all Abraham’s children). But what does it mean that we are saved in Christ? Paul tells us some pretty incredible benefits here. Let’s marvel at this together.

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