Thursday, April 28,
2016, 5:00 a.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song, “I Do Not Seal My Lips.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I
read Romans 5:1-5 (ESV).
Justified by Faith
(v. 1)
Therefore,
since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be justified by faith? First of all, I
believe we need to go back and look at Romans 3:23 where it says, “for all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God.”
When God created man (Adam), he placed him in a garden. He
gave him so many good things to enjoy, but he told him that he could not eat of
a specific tree. Then God created woman (Eve) out of man, because God said it
was not good for man to be alone. Then Satan tempted Eve to sin against God by
eating fruit from the forbidden tree. And, Eve gave to her husband of this
fruit, and he, as well, ate the fruit and thus sinned against God. So, God put
a curse on them, and he banished them from the garden (See: Gen. 2-3).
Then, we read here in Romans 5:12 that “sin came into the
world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men
because all sinned.” And in v. 19a we read that “by the one man's disobedience
the many were made sinners.” And, then we read in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, “For
as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For
as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
What this is saying is that, because of Adam’s sin against
God, sin came into the world, and thus we are all sinners. When we are born, we
are born with sin natures, separate from God, without hope, and destined for
eternity in hell. We have all sinned, and we all come up short of attaining God’s
divine approval. Yet, we cannot be made acceptable to God through our own
fleshly works. We cannot earn or deserve our own salvation. We can never be
good enough. So, Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins. He who knew no sin
became sin for us. When he died, our sins died, and they were buried with him.
But, when he was resurrected from the dead, he rose victorious over sin, Satan,
hell and death. Amen!
So, if we want to be justified (made righteous; acceptable
to God), and cleared of all charges against us, so that we are no longer under
a curse, but we are now free from condemnation, and free from the control of
sin over our lives, we need to have faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior
of our lives. So, what does this faith look like? In Romans 6 it states that
those who have been made righteous through faith in Jesus Christ have died to
sin. Basically, when we trust in Jesus Christ to be our Lord and Savior, we are
crucified with Christ in death to sin, and we are resurrected with Christ in
newness of life (Ro. 6), “created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness” (Eph. 4:24). As well, Peter said that Jesus died that we might die to
sin and live to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). This “death to life” is the
essence of the gospel of our salvation (cf. Ro. 8:1-14; Eph. 4:17-24; Lu.
9:23-25).
The peace we now have with God is not the kind the world
talks about. They think of peace as absence of conflict among people where
everyone agrees with one another, and where all people of all faiths join hands
together in unity. Peace with God, though, means that we are no longer at
enmity with God, but through the blood of Jesus Christ shed on a cross for our
sins, and through faith in Jesus Christ, we are made right with God, and we are
no longer his enemies. We are forgiven of our sins, and we now have the hope of
eternal life with God in heaven. Yet, peace with God is likely to produce
conflict with those who don’t have such peace, for they may now hate us and
persecute us for our faith in Jesus Christ.
Access by Faith (v.
2)
Through
him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Through faith in Jesus Christ we gain access into God’s
grace in which we stand. So, what does that mean? What is grace? It is God’s
favor and kindness towards us. In other words, God owes us nothing. We are not
deserving of his grace to us. While we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He
didn’t die on a cross for us because of our goodness, but because of his love for
us, and his desire to see us free from the control of sin, and free to now come
under the control of his righteousness. His grace sent Jesus Christ to die on a
cross. His grace offers eternal salvation to all who will believe on him. By
his grace we are filled and empowered with his Spirit, too, so that we can live
godly and holy lives, pleasing to God.
There are many people today, though, who are teaching God’s
grace as though it is merely a “get-out-of-jail-free card,” and a “free ride”
into heaven and nothing more. Yet, the Bible teaches us that God’s grace, which
brings us salvation, teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly
passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives while we wait
for Christ’s return (See: Tit. 2:11-14). You see, his grace to us was not just
to pardon our sins, to remove the curse of sin, and to give us eternal life
with him. His grace to us is for the purpose of transforming our lives, to turn
us from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that we might
receive forgiveness of sins, and a place among those who are sanctified
(purified) through faith in Jesus Christ (Ac. 26:16-18).
So, if we stand in this grace, it means we remain, endure,
persist and continue in his grace. It is not that we use his grace as a free
license to continue in sin, but that we remain in Christ and in his word, and
we endure suffering and persecution for his name, and we persist and continue
in submitting to his Lordship over our lives in living holy lives, pleasing to
him, all in the power and working of his Spirit within us.
Jesus died that we might no longer live for ourselves, but
for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co. 5:15). He died that the righteous
requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to our
flesh, but who walk according to his Spirit, for if we walk according to the
flesh, we will die, but if by the Spirit we are putting to death the deeds of
the flesh, we will live (See: Ro. 8:1-14). Jesus said that if anyone would come
after him, he must deny self and take up his cross daily (die daily to sin and
self) and follow (obey) him. He said if we hold on to our old lives (of living
for sin and self), we will lose them for eternity, but if we lose our lives
(die with Christ to sin), we will gain eternal life (Lu. 9:23-25). Thus, his
grace provides the way in which we can die with him to sin and live with him to
righteousness. By his stripes we are healed! Amen!!
Rejoicing in
Suffering (vv. 3-5)
Not
only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces
endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and
hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our
hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
When we truly believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and as Savior
of our lives, and we are born anew of the Spirit of God, and we have died with
Christ in death to sin, and we have been resurrected with Christ in newness of
life, which is not like our old lives, we will be hated and persecuted for our
faith in Jesus Christ. And, that persecution may come from those closest to us –
family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and even church members.
So, what should be our response to such treatment when it
happens? For one, we are not to fear their threats, their rejection, or the
persecution they will most certainly heap on us if we are truly walking
according to the Spirit and no longer according to the flesh. If we are still
living like the world, the world will still love us, and I am talking about the
worldly church, too. But, if we come out from the world, and we are separate,
as God has called us to be, we are bound to upset some people, even within
organized religion. We have to remember here that Jesus’ greatest opponents
were the leaders in the temple.
We are also to rejoice in our sufferings, because God has
good purposes in mind for us through the things which we suffer. Suffering,
thus, though hard and difficult, is for our good. If we respond to our
sufferings in the right way, we learn endurance, we develop godly character, we
have increased faith, and we grow in maturity. As well, through suffering our faith
is tested to see if it is genuine (Jas. 1:2-4). In addition to all that, when
we go through suffering, and God encourages us, we are able to comfort and
admonish others who are going through similar suffering. Our afflictions, too, teach
us to “rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Co. 1:3-11).
And, that is a very good thing!
I Do Not Seal My Lips
/ An Original Work / January 13, 2014
Based off Psalms 37,
40
Do not fear when evil man
Has success in all their plans,
For like grass they’ll wither soon.
They’ll be cut off from the land.
Trust in the Lord and He’ll give you peace.
Find your delight in Him through all stress.
All of your ways commit unto Him.
All your desires from Him He’ll fulfill.
Wait for the Lord; keep His way.
Delight in His Word always.
He’ll be with you to the end;
Life eternal found in Him.
I waited patiently for my Lord.
He turned to me, and He heard my cry.
He set my feet on the Solid Rock.
He gave to me a firm place to stand.
Blessed are we, who trust the Lord,
Who do not turn to false gods.
Our desire’s to do God’s will.
His word is within our hearts.
I will proclaim salvation to man.
You put a new song now in my mouth.
I’ll not withhold your love and your grace.
I’ll speak forevermore of your truth.
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