In today’s reading, there are 2 key statements, and they can be found at the end of each of the two sections of this chapter:

The topics for today are judgement (trying to assess how another person is doing with regards to living out his faith) and really what I would call an extension of the love your neighbor idea, which is being sensitive to another’s journey so as not to cause them to stumble.  I think the most important we can keep in mind in reading this chapter today is the personal nature of faith - that the journey is unique for each of us.

In the first section, Paul is stressing this idea that we should judge others...and he is being specific to the idea that we shouldn’t attempt to judge how another person is doing as it relates to faith.  It isn’t up to us to assess another’s performance as it relates to living out their faith.  This is one of the natural by-products of organized faith that really undermines the church as a whole, trying to assess how well others are doing.  We constantly want to find ways to label things, and people, and to figure out who are the good Christians and who are the people that are REALLY saved, etc.  Paul is reminding us that each of our journeys is unique, and what is true of your journey, and how God calls you to move through life is likely different than how He calls me.  Therefore, we can’t get involved in this line of thinking where we are trying to assess others.  We are only responsible for equipping others with the message of the gospel and the tools for growth; as they say, you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.

Then Paul turns to this idea of not being a cause for another to stumble, which I view as an extension of both the love ideal from yesterday, as well as this judgement idea from today - we should be aware of the needs of others, we should seek to understand them, and we should them make our best efforts not to cause them struggles in their faith journey, but to facilitate their growth and development.  He uses the practice of a constrained diet, from the Torah, Jewish Law, to make the point...if controlling my diet is a part of my faith journey, then you should not cause me difficulty in that.  If you like fasting on Sundays, then I shouldn’t cause you trouble in that.  The point is that each of our journeys is unique to us, and that if we are pursuing God out of desire of our hearts, if it is coming from a heart of faith, then it is good.

For me, the big idea today is personalization - God takes us each on a personalized journey.  There are likely to be some shared struggles and some shared victories in terms of our spiritual development, but God’s calling on your life is unique to you, and mine to me...I should in no way be a hindrance to your journey, nor should I be trying to assess to your success of failure as a Christian...that’s between you and God.  I should be additive to the lives of those around me...and if I am not doing that, I should consider how to become that way.  That’s my takeaway today.

Diving into the back half of Romans chapter 13 today, we see a couple of well-spoken ideas clearly laid out by Paul.  In the first couple of verses this morning, Paul gives us a great summary of essentially why the law from the Old Testament isn’t needed anymore...all of that can be summed up in two parts - love your God with all of your heart and your mind and your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  Now, Paul is only keying-in on the second part, loving your neighbor as yourself, here, but it is just really well said.  I am going to read it:

9 For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Paul is just making the point that the OT Law isn’t gone, or abolished, it is merely a part of a bigger ideal now...love.  This was an important idea to the Jewish Christians who all grew up with this Law as the dominating concept to their faith.

And then Paul gives us a reminder that time is fleeting, that we must get a move on in our practicing our faith, in verses 11-14 he says this:

11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

In other words, we must fight back against ourselves...against our tendencies to get lazy with our lives, against our tendency towards what’s easy and comfortable, and we must push forward towards growth, towards development; we must resist much of the things of this world that can distract us from God’s will...that we love others as ourselves.  When we desire comfort over growth, what’s easy over what’s right, or what’s right in front of us instead of what’s to come, we end up missing what God has for us.  Paul is giving us a nudge, a little bit of a pep talk.  We have to stay in the fight and battling the sin that is within us.

Today I am reminded that the most important step in my faith journey is the one right here, right now...this next decision.  It is the next decision to pray, or to think on God’s Word, or to love someone when I sense I should but don’t really FEEL like it...the next step is always the most important.  And, I shouldn’t focus on steps missed, but only what’s in front of me.  One little step here, one little step there...and in a short time, I will end up a long way from where I started, and a lot closer to God.  Incrementalism is the word of the day for me.

This section is one that can easily be misused and even abused it we aren’t careful, so this is a good area to make sure we’ve read and considered.  So, let’s talk about what Paul isn’t saying.  Is Paul saying that all authority is placed into being by God, and therefore we should just follow our leaders without consideration?  No...I mean, Paul was arrested and ‘tried’ for not doing exactly that...not following the governing power’s rulings around spreading faith.  So that can’t be what he means here.  This doesn’t mean we should do what an abusive spouse tells us to do, or stay in ridiculous job settings under a boss that is terrible...this isn’t any of that.  I think we have to understand these words in a broader context.  First off, Paul teaches us this idea of being in the world but not of the world - the idea that we need to try  to operate peacefully inside of the culture in which we find ourselves, trusting that God will be and always has been in charge of the ultimate outcome.  We do this because this is how we  demonstrate faith...with peace.  Our default setting should be to follow our authorities...that should be the setting from which we are generally assuming to start.  We aren’t rebels, that isn’t our reputation; we are Jesus-followers.  If we are known as rebels, then we are distracting from our original purpose and message.

Further, it is also important to bear in mind that this passage is likely tied to a common question of the time fro Jesus-followers, which was the question “Should be we pay taxes to Caesar?”.  You can see how Paul answers this question in the way this is written...there is some context and then he finally directly answers that question.

So, today, the important thing for me is that we should have a default setting of peace.  We should carry a default setting of submission to authority.  We should default to looking for ways to follows follow the rules vs. ways to break the rules.  I am definitely guilty, at times, of being a rebel looking for a cause...I think Paul is trying to level-set us here.  Again, that is not to say that Christians shouldn’t ever rebel, because we also know that isn’t true.  This is really more about our default setting for me today.

The first section of today’s reading, Romans 12:3-21, is about spiritual gifts and it really prompted me to think about this question as I was reading it, “When am I at my happiest state?  Or is it ‘most happy’?  I don’t know...but when is that?  I will tell you when that is...when I am feeling content and I am not comparing myself to others.  When I feel good enough as I am, I tend to relax a little more.  That’s when the weight comes off of my shoulders; that’s when I tend to be more present with the ones I love...when I feel like I am good enough.

Here Paul is pressing into this idea that God gave us all gifts, and He ordained us with a purpose in mind.  and he tells us that we should lean into those gifts and we should  focus on being the best version of ourselves, living out that purpose.  And, further, he connects our purpose with others in that he teaches us that God created everyone as pieces of the puzzle, as parts of the whole.  So, not only are we happiest when we are being our best selves, but that’s when the world is a better place as well.  As poetic and romantic as that idea is, it is actually very easy to accept and to confirm when I think about it.  40 years of living on this earth and I can say that those worlds really seem to be true based on my experience.

...and then it starts...we get a laundry list of  stuff from Paul in v9-21.  Now, I am going to read this section really quickly, but here is what I want us to remember this morning.  This list of stuff has 2 purposes - it is both a prescription and a description.  Meaning, we are to effort ourselves to live this way, but we do so knowing that we aren’t going to pull this off.  Jesus was the only one that was about to do that, ever.  BUT, that still doesn’t release us from the prescriptive nature here, we are to make the effort...that’s part of the growth process.  But we should also remember that doing these things doesn’t make us a Christian...these are cumulatively a  description of the fruits you and I will start to notice in our lives as we follow Jesus.  To the extent that you or I start to recognize these things happening in lives, our behavior, we can know that God is working in us.

So, yesterday I prayed to God a few extra times trying to create a better connection and a more open line of communication, today I am going to continue doing that, but I will add in a request that God would help me to spot moments to intentionally be more loving in these ways.  Today I want to act like I am loving and am loved by God.

Alright, here we are...the application section of Romans; a playground of action steps.  Now, it is key to remember, this is NOT the theological segment where Paul is explaining how to be saved...non of this is that.  What follows is mostly about the 5th word in today’s passage - the word “therefore”.  Today, I am only working with 2 verses, because there are some important ideas in these 2 verses and I am more interested in getting a lot of out of these readings vs. just reading a lot.  So, here are those two verses:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

As I said, the first word that I really think is key to understanding this chapter and what’s the follow is this word THEREFORE.  Paul is essentially saying, ‘given everything I have just said’, or ‘in light of the teaching I have just given on saving Grace’...therefore; and therefore what?  Well, in light of all of that, what should a person do?  What should a person do who has received that message of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection?  What’s the response?

Well, first off, I should present my body as a living sacrifice.  That is different from the 1500 years of animal sacrifices that had been prescribed by the Torah, the Jewish Law...not I am the sacrifice, just as Jesus was the sacrifice, because the proper response to the message of the Gospel is to try to emulate Jesus.  That isn’t to save us...Jesus already did that.  No, it is just the fitting response of someone who understands what’s been done on his behalf.  That’s why he follows with “which is your spiritual worship”.  In other words, that living sacrifice that we offer IS our worship.  In fact, the word that is translated to mean spiritual in this verse could also mean reasonable...this is the reasonable thing to do given what’s been done for us...to worship.

That is a really strong opening verse!  And he goes on in verse 2 to say that we shouldn’t be conformed to this world...now, this is something we have to take in context.  Paul is definitely telling us that we shouldn’t fall pray to the traps of this world, and that we should be different, or marked by our faith.  Paul isn’t saying that we should be distant from non-believers...you only have to look at his example and how he lived his life to know that isn’t what he is saying.  I think a good way to think about this is a diagnostic question I asked myself a few days ago - “Could someone, looking at my life, convict me of being a Jesus follower?  Could I be convicted of being a Christian in a court of law?”  We should be marked by the Gospel in some way.

And we should be transformed by it as well...that is to say, it should move us, change us; and anything that does that is uncomfortable and challenging at times...that’s part of the deal.  That’s why Paul gives us famous verses in Philippians about enduring, ‭‭because it is hard to growth.  But he gives us a key here...it isn’t about just gritting our teeth and acting right, doing right, but it is about having our minds transformed to see as God sees, in time, as we grow in relationship with Him.  As our minds are shaped by God’s Grace and teaching, our bodies will follow.  Yes, we should try to act right too, but time should make the acting right easier and easier as our minds are renewed.  And that renewal means that we are slowing learning to see as God sees...we can’t get all of the way there in this goal, but we can get close than where we are today, and then a little more tomorrow, and the next day...it is a process.

Today we see Paul’s last really theological writing, before getting into more of the application portion of Romans. He is taking on the question, “Why then all of the suffering of Israel? Why the law; did God hate Israel, or want to punish her? Was he making a mockery of the Jews?”

Paul’s answer to that question was definitely a “No…not at all!” The Jews were part of the message…it was through their faithful attempts to live out the law that we get evidence that it isn’t possible to pull it off. The Jews were the most well-behaved, God-fearing, and God-supported people…and they still couldn’t pull it off. That isn’t an indictment on them…it is evidence that people aren’t able to do it…we aren’t capable of fully living like Jesus. Further, it was through their sacrifice and their toil that the rest of the world can now be saved; the Jewish people paved the way for the rest of us Gentiles.

God wasn’t hating on anyone…He was helping us to understand. Think about how you raise your kids…sometimes you know the best thing you can do is to let them figure something out on their own. If it isn’t something that is life-threatening, this is actually, usually, a decent strategy. We let them fumble around and eventually figure certain things out. In doing that, they not only learn how to do something, but they learn that they don’t know everything. It is in fumbling around that we gain appreciation for someone having the answer. That’s part of the reason that most people, as they get older, start to be more and more open to the wisdom of others…because we know we don’t have time to figure everything out! The Jews were fumbling around for 1500 years so the rest of us can just accept the fact that we aren’t going to be good enough to EARN God’s Grace…Jesus is really our best and ONLY shot at it!

We pick on the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Jews of the Old Testament a lot as we read the Bible and try to understand our faith…because we see a lot of examples of how NOT to do it. But, in reality, there are MANY stories of faithful Jews who were doing their best and who eventually turned to Jesus that we don’t know about. They were patiently waiting, and their Messiah came. Today I am reminded how fortunate I am to be on THIS side of Jesus’ life…that I don’t have to endure what many of those Jews had to endure. Today, I am hard on myself because I don’t live up to God’s standards, but at least I know deep down that God isn’t also doing the same thing…He isn’t judging me based on those standards. At least I know, as hard as I am on myself, that God sees me in a different light. I am so thankful for that, and for the years and years of sacrifice of the Jews that came before me.

Yesterday we discussed the first half of Romans 10, looking at the clear message of how a person is saved...by faith in the message of Jesus; His life, death, and resurrection.  Paul was very clear on that.  He has built up to this point in the first 9 chapters, now he’s given this message clearly, and now he is about to start moving towards some of the more practical applications of God’s message through Jesus - we have just a little more to go before there yet, though.

Today, we are tackling the second half of Romans 10, and with it a question that generally plagues believers at some point in their journey.  That is this question: “If the gospel, the good news of Jesus, is the message that must be heard and received in order to be accepted as God’s child, and adopted into God’s kingdom...what about all of those people who never get to hear this message?”

So, let’s start with the ‘fairness’ angle on this.  People will rightly say, “Well, that isn’t fair...how could God not give everyone an equal chance to be saved?”  And that’s a reasonable position to take, I suppose.  And I don’t have a great response for that.  How about this, if I said , “Well, if your house were burning down and you have 3 kids and your spouse inside the house, and you were going to run in and grab the first one and then go back for a second, etc...who would you grab first?  And, once you got that person out safely, if you turned around to go back for the next one and the house collapsed and exploded, would you be an unfair person for choosing one person over another?”...I think that’s a good line of thought.  However, that gives rise to another question, which is a good one too, “Why couldn’t God just save everyone?”.  To that question, at least we are more into the spiritual realm and I think a satisfactory answer is “He can, and He could have, but for whatever reason, He didn’t.”  And then we circle back to “Well, how could a good God do that?”.  The point I am making is this - we don’t know.  Remember, we can tell a lot about a painter by looking at the painting, but we can’t know everything about Him; and we certainly lack a lot of information about God.  He is what I CAN say though, I would guess that these passages aren’t meant to answer that question, but rather, they are meant to motivate us.  IF this is the only way everyone would be saved...by the sharing of the gospel, shouldn’t that motivate us to get our butts in gear?  Shouldn’t get that get our minds spinning and get us strategizing on how to display the gospel message to our children in a way that would cause it to be attractive to them, and relatable, and understandable?

There ARE parts of the Bible where God alludes to the fact that, perhaps, there is a sort of universalism in the message of Jesus in one way or another, you can look at Psalm 19:4 and Colossians 1:5-6 and in v23 as well...but there is much less clarity about this than would be needed to truly satisfy this question.

This is a great chapter, Paul is going to clearly state the message of salvation that he has been really driving to for quite a while now. When we look at verses 8 through 13, we clearly see this:

“But what does it say?  “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”, (quoting from Duet.); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”  For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

So, Paul is done beating around the bush on this and he really, clearly states hell saving grace is granted.  Now, it is potentially important to clear up a nuance with this that I have heard mentioned before.  I have heard people ask the question, or make the point, that if we are to confess Jesus and believe in Jesus in order to be saved, then we are technically being called upon to do something to save ourselves.  Based on everything Paul has said, I don’t think we can really interpret what he saying quite so literally.  It would be silly to say that Paul was literally making the point that a the physical act of stating one’s belief and act believing in one’s heart is the actual moment of being saved.  Sometimes people will look at passages like this in the Bible and try to draw literal conclusions from it. I don’t think that’s fair to the text. Paul is simply telling us that trusting in the message of Jesus, that he came and lived life that we could not live and died the death we should have died, and was raised from the dead…placing our faith in that sacrifice on our behalf is the act of being saved.

The outward expression, they mentioning it or speaking it or declaring it out loud is really serving the same purpose as baptism, and that is to tell the world what you believe, to make a public declaration.

This sets up an interesting question though, one that is raised by skeptics frequently, and that is this question, “What about all those people who never had the opportunity to hear about Jesus, and to receive this message and thereby be saved?”

That question, in someways, should hunt us. And, that’s the question that is addressed first thing when we resume tomorrow. Paul anticipated and he goes ahead and addresses it in the remainder of this chapter of Romans.

So the question I will be thinking about today is this, since I have declared my faith, and I trust in Jesus, do I really live a life that proves this belief? Could I be convicted of being a Christian if someone tried me on that charge in a court of law?  It is an interesting question.

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