We have had a stormy few days leading up to Christmas this year, with some really weird warmer weather. I took this photo above yesterday with my cell phone as I was walking across the pasture to my house. I had forgotten something at my house that I needed to fix my mom’s computer, and literally as I was walking, I decided to take a few shots of sun through the clouds with my phone. I’m always amazed at the beauty that is before us all the time, but because we see it every day, day in and day out, we forget it’s there, or fail to recognize it’s beauty.
Of course this is no accident, and we are told over and over again that this display, the very display we can now capture on a phone, shows the existence of God to us all, and therefore, we are without excuse to say we have never known God to be real, to have shown his beauty to all of us.
This is what David says in Psalm 19.1-6 where he said
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork… in them, he has set a tent for the sun… its rising is from the end of the heavens… and there is nothing hidden from its heat
and again, what Paul says in Romans 1.20
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
I have seen photos taken by Hubble that truly astound and boggle the mind, but sometimes we only have to go as far as to look around us, because God has displayed himself everywhere in His creation, from the Orion Nebula to our own backyard.
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One of the things I love about our particular church is that we are always talking about reaching the unreached… reaching deeper into the community of Auburn and Opelika trying to find ways to bring the Gospel to those who haven’t heard the Good News (a command throughout the New Testament I might add).
One of the ways we do that is once a month the entire staff gets together and walks through the various issues that are the church. Yesterday we discussed the “status quo” of doing church in our culture today and the above image was one page of my notebook where I took notes as we all discussed the topic. I love being a part of these discussions and talking about what the church body looks like in 2012. Since my job is generally on the administrative side of ministry and not that of a pastor, (sometimes it’s hard to remember Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:27-28, the Church needs everyone’s gifts and talents to reach the unreached) but God’s church needs everyone to be involved, not just staff members and volunteers, but everyone.
Will Our Generation Respond to Scripture?
In one of John Piper’s books I’m just finishing up called Jesus: The Only Way to God – Must You Hear the Gospel to Be Saved? he makes this conclusion for the church today.
The question for the church in every generation is: Will we submit gladly to the Scriptures? Will we devote ourselves to understanding them truly, valuing them supremely (under God himself), applying them properly, obeying them wholeheartedly, and speaking them courageously and publicly?
I think this is a great challenge for the American church today. We have built a culture around consumerism church instead of our worship services being a joyous celebration of what God has done the previous week. This is the status quo of “church” is something that takes place for one hour on Sunday morning where we get to hear some good music and an encouraging 17 minute message.
If we truly believe Paul’s words in Romans 10:13-17, then we have a great responsibility to reach at least those unreached people in our immediate community and then beyond.
13 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” 14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” 16 But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Do We Continue to “Sit and Soak”
Question is, how will this play out in our churches in 2012? How does the “sit and soak” mentality of the American church leave Romans 10 unfulfilled (among many other verses as well), and how will we reach those people right here in our own community? Fulfilling the status quo is the most comfortable thing to do, but it’s not very productive for reaching new people for Christ.
The church today should not be about a specific building, or a specific cultural group, or time frame, or a set format. Yes, scripture, orthodoxy, sound doctrine, and at some level, traditions of the early church, are very important and should be a strong foundation, but buildings, times, formats, and everything that goes along with all that, should not be a barrier to those seeking to know the Lord.
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This coming Sunday our church moves into their fall schedule with the start of a new series on the attributes of God. This should be a great look at a few of the many elements that make up the existence and nature of God Himself. I was thrilled when I found out this was the next series since I had just finished my own research on the attributes of God, specifically that of God’s love (research post as The Attributes of God: Analysis on the Basic Dimensions of God’s Love if you are bored), but there are an infinite number attributes that could be studied in detail. Paul says it best in Romans when he asks “who has known the mind of the Lord?”, for the depth of the riches, wisdom, and knowledge of God is so great, that we could never fully exhaust our understanding of God’s greatness (Romans 11:33-34).
One of the more recent theological champions of the attributes of God is the author, theologian, and pastor, A. W. Tozer (April 21, 1897 – May 12, 1963). Tozer wrote a book entitled The Attributes of God (Volume 1): A Journey Into the Father’s Heart, which takes a look at God’s infinitude, immensity, goodness, justice, mercy, grace, omnipresence, immanence, holiness and perfection, and this is the reference book for our upcoming series on the attributes of God. Tozer spent much of his ministry studying what he deemed to be one of the most important questions to ask, what is God like?
Can We Actually Know God?
I think too often today we take a more pluralistic (or post-modern if you like) view of this question, and answer “who are we to think we can know God?”, and then push it off to the back burner and say why bother trying something impossible. To answer in that manner is to excuse oneself from the rigors of pursuing a relationship with God, but it is more than that, it is to deny scripture itself.
In Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians he talks to the church about Christ’s judgment at the second coming (2 Thessalonians 1:8). At the time of the second coming, Christ will punish two distinct classes of people; those who “do not know God” (cf. Romans 1:18-32), and those who “do not obey the gospel” (cf. John 3:36). Jeremiah the Prophet spoke to Judah just before the impending invasion of the Babylonian army and told them they were fools because they didn’t know God, but instead certainly knew the way of evil (Jeremiah 4:22, Isaiah 1:3 and Psalm 82:5).
There are many other examples, but the point is, if we are called by His name, we are called to know God. We can spend a lifetime doing this, but God loves those, and has made Himself known, to those who seek Him out (Proverbs 8:17).
Great Resource for Audiobooks
A quick plug to those who enjoy digging in deeper to these and other topics of faith. Christian Audio (christianaudio.com) has one of the largest selections of Christian audiobooks, and each month they give away a free audiobook. This month happens to be The Pursuit Of God (Unabridged) by A. W. Tozer, and you can download it for free until July 31st. Not only is this title free, but all of A. W. Tozer’s other books are only $4.95 until the end of the month. This is a fantastic resource, and I would recommend Christianaudio to anyone interested in audiobooks (you can listen on your iPod, MP3 player, iPad, iPhone, whatever, and you can also follow them on Twitter @ChristianAudio).
I have no stake in the company or know anyone personally over there, I have just used their resources and have never had any issues with quality or service (only wish they had even more titles than they do). I often depend on a wide range of resources for studying, but even iTunes can’t beat an unabridged book like that for $4.95. That’s my plug for the month, if audiobooks are not your thing, get a copy of Tozer’s books in print, you won’t be disappointed.
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It is only human nature, I guess, to ask why? We start from the moment we can talk asking why this why that. One of my biggest questions to God is always, why? Why did this person get sick, why did this or that happen, and of course, why do you want me to do that?
Sometimes when I ask, later down the road I get the answer, and really wish I hadn’t ever asked why in the first place.
Why God Why?
As was with Nehemiah, Joel, and a host of others, I have had an ongoing discussion with myself (and God) over the last several years about why I ask God why. I think part of asking God why is a lack of faith more than curiosity. Faith knowing that God knows what is best for my life, and I don’t. I know the ultimate answer, the why doesn’t matter, all things work for God’s good.
I bring it up now in a post mainly because of the summer’s events like Matthew Butler (see Matthew Butler Killed at Zion Gate) and others, and ultimately we are asking the question, why evil acts take place or why God allows these things to happen. I certainly don’t know the answer but I know what Romans 8:28 says.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
This is a simple verse to read, but to me, one of the most complex verses in Romans. Different versions or translations put key words in different places but some of the interesting words to look up in the NASB are “God causes” and “called”, “purpose”, “all things”, and so on. Doing a side by side comparison is very interesting.
Is Asking God Why So Important?
How do we answer this question many times when asked by a very small child… because I told you to. Do we not become annoying some times with the question ourselves? Over the years we all develop these little pet peeves and one of mine that keeps getting a little more well defined is when people ask me why other people do what they do. I can barely explain to someone why I am doing something but no way can I figure out why other people do what they do.
People [we] are strange, and they do strange things, rarely can I determine why, so, I really don’t like to be asked. But, if it annoys us, does it annoy God? I don’t think so but I don’t think we can even begin to understand how God thinks so it might be futile to ask the question here. So ultimately, is the why really important? The what, how, and when are probably more important of the little words we like, but not quite as fun I guess.
Do you ask God why? For me, I try to remember Romans 8:28 and know that “why” isn’t always the most important thing, for me anyway.
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This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post (see Small Blogger Group // New Entries Post Here to post your link) on Romans Chapter 4. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidelines). Right now we are several weeks into the group, which started in James, and this week I am hosting the group, so to post your entry just follow the link above called “new entries post here”.
No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.
This week we continue in the justification by faith but through the Old Testament. Always a fun and exciting topic, one that we as Christians love to bounce around and argue about over various topics and pieces, so I am looking forward to reading the other members posts here today as well.
A Little Background on Romans 4
Here in Chapter 4 Paul is talking to us again about being justified by faith, not by works. Paul uses two illistrations here from the Old Testament, Abraham and David. He also quotes the OT several times and is leading us into the results of justification starting in Chapter 5.
We can break down this chapter into 4 smaller sections. (1) By Faith Not Works v1-8, (2) By Faith Not Rite v9-12, (3) By Faith Not the Law v13-17, and finally (4) By Faith in Gods Promise v18-25. I am going to very briefly touch on each of these.
By Faith Not Works (4:1-8)
Paul starts off by introducing Abraham and talks about how if anyone is justified by works, it would be Abraham. In these times, the Rabbis taught that Abraham has an over abundance of righteousness that would be passed down to his decedents (David being one of them).
Paul agrees here that he did great works, but says that it was only for men, not for God. Paul quotes Genesis 15:6 here:
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Paul again quotes the OT and then explains to us that Abraham was justified through God not because of his works, but because he believed in and trusted God. This is still something I think many of us struggle with today. We did this good work, so now we are justified.
I think our society today embraces this quality. I was amazed at a study of how many people believed that if you were a “good person” you would go to heaven. It is something that has been passed down from unbelieving generation to generation. Be a “good person” and you will be rewarded.
The problem with that is who determines what a good person is or does? I certainly don’t want to be compared against Billy Graham, do you? I always loved when a pastor of mine use to say. Works doesn’t get us into heaven, but I still don’t want to be standing in line behind Billy Graham. We can not have faith and trust in our own works, it is worthless.
By Faith Not Rite (4:9-12)
This next section once again brings up the topic of who is included. It is the Jews or the Gentiles? Paul starts to talk about how and when Abraham was justified. Was it before or after he was circumcised? Paul answers his own question, it was before.
Abraham was to perform this on all male decedents as a covenant with God, and this was done when Abraham was 99 years old (Genesis 17:24). It is generally stated that Abraham was 86 when Hagar bore him Ishmael, he was told after that point to circumcise the family.
24 Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was circumcised,
Many jews who rely on the rite circumcision for salvation. We see here, it has nothing to do with actual salvation since it occurred before in Abraham’s life. Once again we are shown that we must have faith. Nothing we do on our own can make us righteous.
By Faith Not the Law (4:13-17)
Here again we can see that the promise God made to Abraham that his decendents would be the heirs to the world, is preceeded by the law by quite a few centuries.
Genesis 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
We can look at Galatians 3:17 and see it was over 400 years before the law was to be given out.
17 What I mean is this: The Law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise.
Paul is going step by step here and it may not be the most common thing in our day, it was clear to his readers that he was telling them, you are not going to be justified by the Law, and neither are we.
We can still look at the Law today, it guides us in just about everything we do. Even if we are unaware of God’s Law, we are still governed under its rules today. We don’t run a red light because we are told, do not kill. We pay for things instead of steal them, and so on. None of this will get us right with God, only faith in Jesus Christ will do that.
By Faith in God’s Promise (4:18-25)
In the final section we see how much faith Abraham had in God. He had so much faith in God that he believed in an impossible situation, and Paul says this is why he was credited with righteousness.
There are so many things in our lives that we can decide we don’t want God to handle. We can give God control over part of our life in this situation, but not in that one. We (I include myself) waver back and forth between trusting ourselves, in our works, in our rites, and in the fact that we uphold the Law, that we loose site of God.
I really love seeing the faith of Abraham. It is not that he was a perfect person, or had some kind of super natural powers, he was an old man that put in trust and faith in one thing, God. I know people who have given up in faith. They felt that because their faith wavered that they were not worthy of God’s call, or hypocrites.
I wish one person in particular would understand we all do this. That is why we have a Savior to come back to when we stumble. We are not required to be perfect, all we need is faith the size of a mustard seed.
Visit the Other Bloggers in the Group
There are several other bloggers who participate each week. Be sure to read their posts and comment. Don’t forget to come back and leave a link to your post as well.
- 12 Steps Closer
- Cindy in South Dakota
- Consuming Worship
- Geoff Bradley
- Heath Spurlock
- Just Another Minute
- Mandy Conforth
- Scott Fillmer
- Worship Journey
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If you are looking for the Small Blogger Group on Romans you found the right place. I am hosting the group this week while a few are away tending to other duties, so please be in prayer for Kyle, Brian, and Heath, as they take a break this week.
This Week with Consuming Worship, Romans 4
This weeks Small Group in partnership with Consuming Worship we start Romans chapter four [4] all verses. (Side Note: If you haven’t read Romans chapter four [4], but want to participate. Read it now and write about it. Any input is better than no input. Everyone is welcome.) [Mr. Linky is at the bottom]
If you’re new and not sure what to do, below I have posted the instructions to the group. Take the time to read them, it will help make this group much easier for you. INSTRUCTIONS
Small Blogger Group – Damascus Style
This week I am going to do the Mr Linky slightly different than Vagabondrunn. I have posted it right here on the page, so all you need to do is post the link to your study entry right here, and we should all be able to see the links for the other entries as well.
If you have any questions at all please just send me a quick email or twitter and I will get right back with you. I am going to post my own entry on a different blog post, so go ahead and leave your links here.
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This is my installment for the Blogger Small Group post on Romans chapter 3:21-31. There is always time for anyone to join in if they like (see Blogger Small Group Rules/Guidelines). Right now we are several weeks into the group, which started in James.
No need to try and catch up, just start in the same place we are and post your opinions.
This week we dive into the theological rich area of justification by faith. Always a fun and exciting topic, one that we as Christians love to bounce around and argue about over various topics and pieces, so I am looking forward to reading the other members posts here today as well.
A Little Background on Romans 3:21-31
This section of scripture can be a little confusing or complicated, at least to me, but Paul is talking about righteousness being revealed by God. We do learn here, if we didn’t know already, that there is not one single human being (Jesus being the one single exception) that has ever, or ever will be able to meet the standards of God on his or her own merit.
I do have a few favorite verses and Romans 3:23 is one of them.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God
To me, this is the key verse in this section. There is no difference that exists between human beings because all have sinned.
A Little Run Through the Bible Dictionary
Sometimes there are big words in the Bible that we don’t understand fully, but there are some that I would deem as “religious” words that we turn off for one reason or another. I wanted to touch on a few that I have trouble with from time to time, just to remind myself of their meaning here in Romans 3.
I know I am not addressing the exact scriptures word by word or verse by verse, but I think these two terms below are important parts of this scripture, so today I just decided to focus on what they meant as a part of these passages in Romans (sorry for the deviation).
Righteousness
This word in the NT context is mainly used by Paul and one Bible dictionary talks about the Greek family of words that goes in to providing a proper definition of the word righteousness.
A single family of words expresses the concept. Dikaiosyne, which means “uprightness”, Dikaios is “just” and dikaioo means to “pronounce or treat a person as righteous or to vindicate or acquit”.
This was someone who met obligations to others in their community and to the “gods”, or in Jesus day it was viewed as behavioral conformity to the written or oral law. Here are a few other definitions I came across when looking this up.
adhering to moral principles
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwnRighteousness (also called rectitude) in this article refers to the important theological concept in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RighteousnessThe quality or state of being righteous; holiness; purity; uprightness; rectitude. Righteousness, as used in Scripture and theology, in which it chiefly occurs, is nearly equivalent to holiness, comprehending holy principles and affections of heart, and conformity of life to the divine law; A …
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/righteousnessRighteousness is an attribute of moral purity belonging to God alone (John 17:25 ). It is He alone who is truly righteous. …
www.carm.org/dictionary/dic_p-r.htmThe righteousness of faith is the gift of righteousness which the believer receives through the abundance of the Father’s grace. …
www.biblestudy.org/beginner/basic-bible-teachings.htmlRighteousness is the moral perfection of God that is the standard of what is right. God’s righteousness is expressed in the Ten Commandments. …
www.cbcfargo.com/resources/promise/08.htmlLiving in truth, acting in justices. Life itself can be understood or viewed as motion or movement. It began at birth, and ends at death. One cannot reach the end without a means or vehicle. Thus, righteousness is the vehicle of life with truth as the guide and justice as the steerimg wheel.
www.liberationconcepts.com/maat
Justification
These two terms in the Bible are very similar. Sometimes Justification and Righteousness are used for the same meaning. In the NT terminology the word is dikaioo (same as used above) which means “to acquite” or “to vindicate”, or “to pronounce righteous”.
Some other definitions are:
something (such as a fact or circumstance) that shows an action to be reasonable or necessary; “he considered misrule a justification for … a statement in explanation of some action or belief the act of defending or explaining or making excuses for by reasoning; “the justification of barbarous means by holy ends”- H.J.Muller
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwnIn Christian theology, justification is God’s act of declaring or making a sinner righteous before God. …
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justification (theology)
The early church said to rejoice in the fact that God had pronounced them righteous (or justified) for all those believing in Jesus (Acts 13:39).
39 Through him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.
Back to Romans 3:21-31
So that is all fine and good but where does that leave us with today’s passage. We started off in Romans chapters 1-3 with Paul starting what would be his argument that none of us are “righteous” in God’s sight, until he hits today’s verses.
Paul has now moved into an argument that righteousness is from God, given freely, and received by those of us who believe in his son Jesus Christ. This is the basis of all we are as Christians and something that we should all cling to.
We can not be justified or righteous on our own account, none of us can.
Do We Nullify the Law?
This is something we/I struggle with. So do we follow the law or not. Is the law applicable today or not. Well, Paul answers that question right here. Paul says here in the greek“me genoito!” Meaning, may it not be or God forbid, or basically, not at all.
I read a section in my study that put it like this:
The purpose of the Mosaic Law is fulfilled and its place in God’s total plan is confirmed when it leads an individual to faith in Jesus Christ. Paul repeatedly affirmed that faith, not works of the Law, is the way of salvation. He wrote the word “faith” eight times in Romans 3:22-31 (and twice in v31).
I think that says and shows the Law’s importance in our lives today. I know this was a little off topic but that is where I was led to go today, hope someone got something out of the information above, if not, I know I did.
Visit the Other Blogs on the Small Blogger Group
- 12 Steps Closer
- Cindy in South Dakota
- Consuming Worship
- Geoff Bradley
- Heath Spurlock
- Just Another Minute
- Mandy Conforth
- Scott Fillmer
- Worship Journey
