Romans 8 (part 1)

You heard me say last week that Romans 8 is the most beautiful chapter in the Bible. Here are the seven reasons why I believe that this chapter is different that any other: 

1. There is no other chapter that more deeply or fully deals with the brokenness of the physical universe, and how it got that way, and what will become of it.
2. There is no other chapter that expresses with more clarity or power the infallible and unbreakable certainty of our salvation.
3. There is no other chapter that combines the intercession of the Holy Spirit in us with the intercession of the Son for us in the service of the never failing love of God over us. 
4. There is no chapter that more directly juxtaposes the necessary horrors of our suffering with the completely assured grandeur of the glory to come - an assurance that moves with such force through suffering that we are left with nothing but an unshakeable hope in the love of God.
5. There is no other chapter that deals more directly and tenderly with our struggle to know that we are the children of God, and in the midst of this struggle introduces us to the witness of the Holy Spirit.
6. There is no other chapter with a more abundant litany of privileges, securities and assurances to hold us firmly in the keeping of the love of God.
7. There is no other chapter in which so many glorious truths are proclaimed to help us obey only one implied command: live by the Spirit not the flesh, and by doing so, fulfill the whole law - that is, love.

These are the reasons I believe Romans 8 is the most beautiful chapter in the entire Bible. It is in this chapter that I find peace in fear, joy in sadness, and freedom in Christ from sin. Please have your Bible with you as we study together. Read along with me. If you don't have it with you go to bible.com and load your favorite translation.

So today we are studying Romans 8 together, but to do that, let's go back a few verses into chapter 7. Romans 7:22-8:

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.  

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

This verse has some speculation about it because as we have been reading through Romans Paul has been telling us that sin will have no dominion over us, yet here we see that Paul is still struggling with sin, so the question is how these two truths fit together. How can a person who is saved, freed from the dominion of sin, still be under the law of sin? 

The first stance that some scholars take is that verses 22-25 are talking about the pre-regenerate Paul. They say that the Paul in the first few verses is the Paul who was not a child of God and the Paul in the next verses is the regenerate Paul. "There is therefore no condemnation in Christ Jesus" is the revelation of grace to the unsaved Paul, and that grace works to free him from his bondange to sin in verses 2-4 of Chapter 8. Read through these verses again and I think you can probably see how this stance sort of fits the verse. However, I don't think that it is a correct way of reading this scripture. Here's why: Paul talks about himself in the present the entire time, Paul says that he delights in the law of God (unsaved people do not delight in anything about the Lord, especially not in their inner being), and finally Paul thanks God for His victory over sin and Paul's deliverance from his body of death. 

Instead, I believe that Paul shows us his humanity throughout chapter 7, the truth that he has not attained a life without sin. Then in chapter 8 Paul tells that even though we can find ourselves struggling between the things of this world and the things of God, there is no condemnation for those who are in Jesus. Then he goes on to tell us that there is freedom through the law of the Spirit of life. So the question still stands: How can someone be free in the Spirit and still have battles with sin? 

Here is what I believe Paul is saying when he tells us that we have been set free: 

• The battle against sin has been decisively won - we have 100% confidence in Christ's victory over sin. We do not have to fear that we will fall from grace (Romans 8:31-39). 
• The battle over sin has been ultimately won - at the end of time we will stand with Jesus as heirs to the Kingdom of Heaven and we can have expectant hope of the glory to come (Romans 8:18-25). 
• The battle over sin is progressively being won - this is the process of sanctification, a continual working to become more like Christ, driven by the power of the Holy Spirit continually setting us free from sin. 

Read through those verses above again, and notice the contrast between the two laws. One is of life and of the Spirit and is in his mind and inner being, while the other law is one of death and sin and is in his members. These members are anything with which you sin - your eyes, ears, tongue, stomach, hands, sexual organs, feet, lungs... The reason Paul says the law of God is in his mind and his inner being while the law of sin and death is in his members is because the person of Paul, his soul, the thing that makes Paul Paul, is the thing that is saved by Jesus. It is his body, a "body of death" that keeps him sinning. We are saved people who, hopefully, desire the things of God in our heart of hearts. Yet we still sin because we are in a sinful world, a sinful body, and have not yet reached the glory that is to come. Though, we are called through the transformative power of the gospel to act as though we are a member of God's family. This is the transforming nature of the law of the Spirit. When the truth of the gospel invades our souls, it changes our desires to those that are in agreement with God's desires. This is a gradual, transforming work of the Spirit so that we have nothing to boast about. If we changed desires by our own power, then we would not need the gospel. All of the freeing from sin - the progressive winning of the battle - is found for those who are "in Christ Jesus." 

How do we get to be "in Christ Jesus"? 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, "And because of him [God] you are in Christ Jesus..."And Galatians 2:20 "I live by faith in the Son of God..." So, if it is because of God that we are in Christ, then how does that fit with Galatians where we are told that we are live in Christ by faith? Is it our faith that unites us with Christ, or is it because of God's work? The answer is both. Look in Ephesians 2:8: 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. 

God unites us in Christ by giving us faith, which results in both freedom from condemnation and in power from the spirit transforming and freeing us from sin.  

There is one verse that caught my attention as I was reading. That is Romans 8:3, and particularly this part: "By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh." My brain came to a halt and asked "Why in the likeness of sinful flesh?" I have always believed that Jesus was really and completely in human flesh, and after the ascension he remained remained in that real flesh. Why, then, does Paul seem to minimize that by saying Jesus was only in the likeness of sinful flesh? 

First of all, please remember that we were not "sent" into human flesh. That is just the way we are. Jesus was sent from heaven into flesh. This gets us to the second point, that Jesus was indeed in real flesh, but his flesh was sinless. That is how God took our sin and "condemned sin in the flesh [Jesus' flesh]" (Romans 8:3). So in verse three we see that God sent his Son in the likeness of human flesh to condemn sin in Jesus' flesh, which was something that the law could not do. Why can't the law condemn sin? I immediately started thinking, "Wait, but doesn't the law condemn?" I really thought that was the whole reason Jesus came - the law was condemning us and Jesus came to set us free from condemnation. But here's what I realized: 

The law condemns us in sin, but Jesus condemns the sin in us. 

The law can never give a "not-guilty" verdict. But God can. But why can't the law give a not-guilty verdict? Because it is weakened by the flesh. How do we, humans, weaken a law that God made? The law was meant to show God's standards. If anyone were to meet those standards they would be found not-guilty. The problem is no one can (Romans 3:23). So the law was weakened by the flesh because we are all sinful, therefore rendering the law useless for declaring righteousness. When people meet the law, it is not law-keeping that happens, it is law-breaking. 

Here's the question some of us must certainly ask: Why did God create a system that didn't work? I believe that God fully intended for the Law to fail. The Law cannot save us and God knew it. He did this so that we would have nothing to boast about and it would show God's righteousness (Romans 3:25). 

Jesus took our sin into his sinless flesh, and let the law fully condemn His flesh through His death, then Jesus defeated the power of death so that not only were we rescued from our sins, but we were made right with God. If Jesus had only died, He was only a mere man. Instead, Jesus upheld the whole law, paid for our sins, and defeated the power of sin forever. 

Why then, did God choose to do things this way? Was there any other reason than for Him to receive glory? Paul says there was one other reason - that "the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." (Romans 8:4) 

Notice first that Paul did not say that Jesus came to fulfill the requirement of the law for us. This would have been true, but there is more to grace than that. The grace of God fulfills the righteous requirement of the law in us, and it does so through the Spirit. What, then, is the righteous requirement of the law? To answer this, we will do what we always do if Paul doesn't explain something very well: interpret Scripture with Scripture. I am deathly afraid of reading something into Scripture that is not really there. So instead of me speculating about what it could mean, lets do some looking through the Bible, and then check what we find with some more Scripture. Let's start in Romans 13:8-10: 

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 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." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is fulfilling the law. 

This seems like a pretty clear answer - the righteous requirement of the law must be to love one another. But is this something that is the work of the Spirit? I believe it is, and the evidence (our next check) is found in Galatians 5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love..." God provided His Son so that we would have no condemnation, we are declared righteous (this is justification), then in verse 4 we see that this is all so that we could be sanctified by living out a life of love which sums up all the commandments.  

Because of time we didn't get to go any further into Romans 8, but we will next week. In preparation, please prayerfully read Romans 8 & 9 before we study together again. 

Romans 6 & 7

We've got two chapters to cover this week again, so lets go ahead and get straight into this. 

We left off last week with Paul telling us  that since we have been saved by grace, that grace enacts in us an ability to have a cheerful, certain, and hopeful expectation of our salvation's security and our Lord's faithfulness in the midst of suffering. Before that, Paul spent a great deal of time teaching us about how we are saved by grace and no longer "under the law." Now that we get to chapter 6, Paul addresses some objections that could be raised to his case for grace. The first objection is this (verse 1): 

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 

Stop here and realize this is a valid objection to Paul's whole argument. In Romans 5:20 Paul says, "Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more..." If this is true, then the objection Paul brings to our attention is valid, and is likely one that Paul has heard before. Before we get into this too deeply, let's keep reading, starting over in verse 1: 

What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can he who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. 

What Paul says here is that we have been saved (put to death with Jesus through baptism) so that we would be set free from sin. What does it look like to be "set free" from  sin? First of all, I have no idea why so many Bible translations insist on translating that word as "set free". It is the same word they have been translating as "justified" over and over. I think that using "set free" carries an amount of weight that tends to be placed on our shoulders - this feeling that if I'm still sinning, then maybe I haven't really died with Christ, maybe I'm not really saved. Like we learned a couple weeks ago, that word means that we have been proclaimed righteous. If this was translated that we have been justified out of, or away from sin, it more clearly places the weight of the "freeing" on Jesus's shoulders. Saying "set free" isn't wrong, but I feel it isn't best (and I'm not alone in this, John Piper and Colin Kruse have also spoken or written about this). Okay, my rant about that is over. 

But really, what does it mean to be justified (set free) from sin? Paul goes on in the next verses to tell us that since we have been justified from sin, we should consider ourselves to be dead to sin and to present ourselves as instruments for righteousness. This sounds a lot like Paul is telling us to be good Christians, obey God, and don't sin. This doesn't sound like what we naturally think about freedom. It sounds like restrictions. So what I have to ask is this: How does not sinning make us free? Isn't freedom the ability to do what you want without repercussions? Isn't the purpose of grace to set us free from the law? 

There was a study done on children where the teachers would take the children to a playground with no boundaries of any kind. The researchers would study their behavior, then repeat the experiment but on a playground with boundaries. Overwhelmingly, the children on the playground without boundaries stayed close to their teachers and rarely ventured far from the equipment. However, with boundaries in place the children felt free to enjoy the playground, run around, and leave the teacher's side. Boundaries bring freedom to exist and enjoy the things within the boundaries without fear. 

Another study was conducted recently on the effects of marijuana on the brain. This was spurred by the recent legalization of marijuana in many states. The study showed that prolonged use of marijuana affects a person's drive - the thing that makes someone want to get up and do something, to have a job, to work toward a goal. It can also cause paranoia in some users, causing them to fear small things in everyday life. The "freedom" many now have to recreationally smoke marijuana is really restricting them, while the "restriction" of laws banning its use really set us free from the effects of marijuana. 

Why, then, does Paul go on to say in verse 14 that we are under grace, and not under law? If the law protects, why should I want to be free from being under it? And how does being under grace and not under law mean that sin will have no dominion over me? 

Think of your body as a castle. God reigns supreme as the rightful ruler. Inside the castle there are good desires that God has put there. Outside the castle, satan takes the good desires and perverts them and turns them into weapons against the king and the members of the body. In Romans 6:12-14 Paul says we should present ourselves as instruments for righteousness. The word instrument is actually a word that refers to weaponry. So we are to present ourselves as weaponry for righteousness. Satan's goal is to seize our weaponry by perverting and changing our desires. This is a battle that Paul is describing. But it isn't a battle of actions - righteous actions versus unrighteous actions. It is a battle of the desires. 

Romans 6 is all about how sinful people, justified by faith, defeat sin apart from works. What it comes down to is this: do you desire sin more than God, or God more than sin? 

The life of a Christian person who really understands the gospel is an ongoing battle of desires, not a battle of actions. If you choose not to do something, it is because you desire something else more. 

But what if the kind of Christianity we have learned is one that is all about willpower and right behavior, rather than an inner desire to do the things of God? Romans 6 helps give us a window into the soul of someone who thinks in this way. Someone who speaks like Paul speaks in verse 1 and 15 is someone who has an assembly of knowledge of good and true ideas relating to the Christian faith, but no experience of the preciousness of Jesus. 

My prayer is that as we study Romans 6 (and a little of 7) that we will perceive the preciousness of Christ. What I'm praying for is an experience of treasuring Christ, not just acknowledging the truth of Christ. An experience of desire, not just a decision to follow Christ. An experience of valuing Jesus, not just realizing He should be valued. 

What does Paul mean in verse 14 when he says, "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace"? First, please realize that this is not a command. It is a promise. The command comes before this in verses 12-15: 

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 

If we want to live this command we have to understand verse 15. This is actually the only time in Scripture that "under grace" is used. So interpreting Scripture with Scripture gets a little tricky. Instead, lets look at what "under law" means. This phrase is used a whole lot throughout Paul's letters, and most frequently in Galatians. Check out Galatians 4:4: 

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

We are the people who are under the law and are being redeemed. So for us, being under the law is a problem. Romans 3:23 makes this pretty clear. But based on Galatians 4:4 we know that being under the law was not a problem for Jesus even though He is fully man. This is because He is also fully God. He is sinless. Galatians 4:4 establishes that under the law we have no salvation. God has to impart His grace to us if we are going to be redeemed from sin. 

To be under the law means that the law is the grounds of acceptance before God. It is law-keeping that makes us righteous. Being under the law means that we look to our own obedience to be what justifies us. The problem is, we can't. Again, Romans 3:23 makes that very clear. Jesus didn't have this problem because He was sinless. For Jesus, His calling was to be under the law. He provided a righteousness which maintained acceptance with God. It is this acceptance that makes it possible for me to be made right with God. 

Galatians 5:2-4 expresses the importance of this truth: 

Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 

To "accept circumcision" means that you are accepting it as your right of passage into salvation. If you accept this as your salvation you are obligated to keep the whole law. You are either under law or not. You are either under grace, or not. You either keep all of the law perfectly, or you take Christ 100% as your grace-giver. 

There is no inbetween law and grace here. We cannot be under grace and under law at the same time. If our obedience to the law has anything to do with our salvation, then Christ died needlessly. If your righteousness can save you, then you have no need for Christ. At the same time, if Christ is the grounds on which 100% of your salvation rests, then you have no obligation to the law. That is what it means to be under grace. To be under grace is to have Jesus providing for me a righteousness in Christ which is not my own so that, by grace, God sees me as righteous as Christ is righteous. Grace is not a power that makes us act righteous - it is the alien righteousness of Christ that pronounces us as righteous. 

Why does all this mean that sin will not be my master? There are three reasons. More than that actually, but I'm only pointing out three of them. 

1. Through grace, God's wrath is removed.
   
   When we are under grace the wrath of God is removed from us to that all of God's actions toward us are saving. Nothing that God does flows through His channels of wrath towards us. Everything goes through His channels of mercy. When we are under grace God has absolutely no more wrath towards us. He expresses only friendship and help so that all things work together for our good, even the most painful things.
2. Through grace, guilt is removed.
   One of the biggest obstacles to being free from sin is paralyzing guilt. We feel like we will just keep failing so we can't see the point of trying to triumph over sin at all. This sunday we will get to look at what this means in the context of Romans 8.
3. Through grace, God is at work in us to will and to do His good pleasure. 
   God doesn't just remove things from us like wrath and guilt, He actually works in us to will and to do His good pleasure.
   
   But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. Romans 6:17-18 

Notice that the verbs here are all passive - God is the one working out in us the things of righteousness. God commits (or hands over) our hearts to obedience through the power of grace in Christ. 100% of our salvation is dependent on Christ. Not on ourselves. 

We do not perform any law keeping in order to demonstrate to God that our justifying righteousness is in ourselves. Instead, we acknowledge that all of our righteousness is found in the great act of Jesus. We receive this as the treasure of our life.  

It is possible to receive things that you do not like. Saving faith is not a believing in something that you do not like, it is not believing in a person that you don't treasure or love. This is as far as the demons go... and their faith excites horror. Saving faith is built of desire for the things of God. This desire is instilled in us by God through grace. The effect of saving grace is a changed heart, a renewal of the mind, a set of fixed desires. 

As we enter chapter 7 Paul is still answering the questions in verses 1 and 15. The issue Paul brings up is basically someone asking this: "Hey Paul! You say we aren't under law... So why don't we just sin?" Then, in his answer he doesn't even address the law. You could imagine someone saying, "Hey Paul, I don't think you've addressed the problem..."

Chapter 7 is where Paul finally gets to the issue behind the question, "Why does not being under law not produce lawless people?" 

In the first few verses Paul gives us an illustration relating to marriage, divorce, and remarriage. That is an entire topic in itself and we aren't going to talk about that right now. The bottom line in verses 4-6 is this: 

Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. 

Being made unified with Christ - married to Christ - effects change. The change brought by grace is fruits of righteousness that grows within us. This is fruit that grows, not tinsel that is hung (Romans 6:22, 7:4-6). Our position as redeemed and justified determines the practice of righteous living. The law comes from the outside and presses us to change. The Spirit comes inside and effects a change in us. If we are under the law we are obligated to keep the law. If we are under grace we are obliged to keep the law. The difference is one of desire, thanksgiving, and treasuring Jesus. If you don't feel like you treasure Jesus, then, like David, ask God to restore in you the joy of your salvation (Psalm 51:12). 

The Romans Road

The Romans Road is a way to explain the gospel using verses from the book of Romans. It is by no means the only way to share the gospel. Just a way. Don't be discouraged if it doesn't "work". It isn't meant to be a fail-proof tool. Use it as a guide if God leads you to do so.

The first verse in the Romans Road is Romans 3:23:

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

We have all done things that are displeasing to God. There is no one who is innocent. Romans 3:10-18 gives a detailed picture of what sin looks like in our lives.

The second scripture on the Romans Road (Romans 6:23a) teaches us about the consequences of our sins:

For the wages of sin is death

The punishment we have earned by our sins is death, but not just a physical death - an eternal death.

The next step on the Romans Road comes from both the second part of Romans 6:23 and Romans 5:8:

Romans 6:23b

 but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 

Jesus, being perfect and spotless, died to pay our wages of sin, God the Father showed He had accepted the sacrifice of Jesus by raising Him from the dead.

That brings us to the next stop on the Romans Road - Romans 10:9:

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. 

Because of Jesus' death and resurrection, all we have to do to be saved is believe in that promise. Romans 10:13 says it again:

For 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' 

The last part of the Romans Road brings us to what this saving faith will do for the Christian. Romans 5:1 tells us:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Because of Jesus' sacrifice we are able to have a peaceful relationship with God. Romans 8:1 also teaches us that:

There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

We will never have to be condemned for our sins. Not in Heaven, and not on Earth. Then in Romans 8:38-39 we learn the promise given to everyone who believes the gospel:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.   

After sharing these powerful words of the Bible with someone who doesn't know Jesus, ask them if they would like to come to salvation. If so, there is a prayer we can lead them through. The words of the prayer do not save souls. Only a true repentant heart with faith in Jesus will save souls.

"God, I know that I have sinned against you and am deserving of punishment. But Jesus Christ took the punishment that I deserve so that through faith in Him I could be forgiven. With your help, I place my trust in You for salvation. Thank You for Your wonderful grace and forgiveness - the gift of eternal life! Amen!'

Week 4 - Romans 4 & 5

This week we pick up in Romans chapters 4 and 5. It is a lot to cover, so let's get started.

Chapter 4:

What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.' Romans 4:1-3

When I read this verse, and maybe you too, it brings to mind a passage in James.  Take a look at James 2:20-23:

Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”— and he was called a friend of God. 

If we don't remember context, history, and to interpret Scripture with Scripture, then we can be left feeling like our Bible is contradicting itself. Paul says Abraham was justified by faith, and James says Abraham was justified by works... What gives?

Let's examine some of the language used by James. That word "fulfilled" in verse 23 tells us a lot if we can understand it in the original language. This is the greek word "plee-rah-oh", which means "make come true, bring about... bring to completion... accomplish, finish, make fully known."

What we see then, is that Abraham's faith was fulfilled, or made fully known, when he offered his son Isaac on the altar (if you aren't familiar with this story it can be found in Genesis 22). Since Abraham believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness. Also, since Abraham believed God, he acted on that faith. As James says, "faith apart from works is useless."

Matthew Henry says of this passage in James:

There is not only to be an assent in faith, but consent, not only an assent to the truth of the word, but a consent to take Christ… True believing is not an act of the understanding, but a work of the whole heart.

The point James is making is that the purpose of faith is a transformation of the heart, not just an understanding of the truth that God exists and an understanding of the gospel. Even the demons believe that much, and they shudder (James 2:19). Matthew Henry says that even our "faith", a belief without repentance, will incite horror just as the belief that the demons hold incites horror. You see, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. What makes him different than the demons? Abraham had a heart transformation.

Returning to Romans, how does Paul address this issue? Paul points out in verses 9-16 that Abraham was counted as righteous before he was circumcised (before circumcision was even instituted). Even before being marked as one of God's chosen people through circumcision, Abraham was counted as righteous because of his faith in God. Circumcision can, in many ways, be functionally equated to baptism. Both mark the believer as one of God's children, and both were/ are performed on babies and adults. Both were considered a seal of righteousness (Romans 4:11).

The purpose of Abraham being counted as righteous before circumcision and before his act of obedience with his son Isaac was to make him the father many nations, "the father of all who believe" (Romans 4:11). The promise to Abraham was not to make him the father of the Israelite nation. It was to make him the father of many nations. I think we often hear that and think of the twelve tribes of Israel. Those twelve tribes were still one nation. Abraham was made right before God by faith before receiving the seal of righteousness, before the Mosaic law, and before his obedience, so that he could be the father of all who believe and are justified by faith. Regardless of whether or not they are of Israeli or Jewish descent. God promised Abraham many nations. This is what makes the gospel work. This is why we are called to make disciples of all nations.

What we see then, is that Paul and James are 100% in agreement. This is why nearsightedness can ruin the study of the Bible. When reading the Bible we have to remember to not just read it, but study it. Otherwise we are left with two parts of the Bible contradicting each other and we can't really trust any of it anymore.

Now that we understand that, there is one other verse we should look at before we move on. Romans 4:15:

For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression. 

We just spent all this time talking about how the gospel is all about saving all people, under the Jewish law or not, and now Paul tells us that there is no sin for people who aren't under the law? Why do they even need a savior? If they have no sin to be saved from, then why does it matter that they could be saved by faith? The answer is in Romans 2:14:

For when the gentiles who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 

Romans 1:18-20 says that since God can be known through the world He created, those who suppress the truth are without excuse. Paul says that if there is no law there is no sin, but really, everyone has law. That is why Paul says in Romans 3:23-25 that:

all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.

Chapter 5:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 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. 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. (Romans 5:1-5) 

Believe it or not, this is actually a very joyful part of the Bible. All that talk of suffering doesn't sound joyful, with the exception of Paul saying that we rejoice in our sufferings, which gets confusing because he follows that statement by saying that our suffering ultimately produces hope. This needs to be dissected...

The word translated as "produces" is a greek word (katergazomai) that means to make complete, or to work fully. This is not the same as "plee-rah-oh" that we looked at earlier, but it is a synonym. What this means is that suffering completes our endurance, or works it out to its fullest extent. More than that, the endurance Paul is talking about is not a dreary or dreadful endurance like what we experience while we wait for 5:00 to roll around so we can leave work. The word Paul uses (high-pah-mah-nee) is a cheerful or hopeful endurance.

This cheerful disposition in the midst of suffering brings our character to completion. The word for "character" is an interesting one. It is "dah-ki-mee" which means tried and tested as true through experiment or experience. It comes from the word "dah-ki-moss" which was often used of currency to prove its worth. I don't think this was an accident on Paul's part - he was a word artist. This means that our suffering and cheerful endurance is the test which proves we can be trusted as a valuable member of God’s family. That isn't to say that if we aren't happy all the time we aren't valuable to God. What it does mean is that through faith we have obtained access to a grace which protects us and enables us to be cheerful in the midst of suffering, and that is what makes us valuable. Grace forms value in us because we can stand in the face of suffering and be cheerful.

What is it that we are cheerful about though? Joy and cheer needs to have some root in something or else it is feigned. Remember that character brings to completion our hope (Romans 5:4). The word for hope here is "elpis" which means to anticipate with pleasure. It is a confident and joyful expectation of eternal salvation. This is what we are cheerful about.

Before we close (I know this is long, hang in there), there is one more verse I'd like to look at. That is Romans 5:5:

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.

What does it mean that God's love has been "poured into our hearts"? That is the question I asked myself as I was studying this week. So I looked at the greek word for "pour". It is "ekcheoh" which means to lavishly pour out, almost irresponsibly so. If someone were to pour out love on themselves it would be the greediest of greedy. But that is how God pours His love on us. We've heard what God "showers us with love". That's a nice thought, and isn't necessarily wrong. It sounds comforting and gentle. What Paul is describing here is not a showering of love like a gentle rain, it is more of the idea that God "hurricanes us with love". His love blows in, wipes everything away that was there before, like Bolivar in hurricane Ike. He invades intensely and there is no doubt that He was there. He takes our old self, all the guilt, pain, pride, and strongholds we have built for ourselves and destroys it, wipes it clean. What is left is a blank slate that God takes and makes His own. Unlike a hurricane, God's love is relentless. It never ends. Everytime we pick up our old habits He knocks them down again as if it were never there. That is the intensity of God's love for us. That He would give His only son, Jesus, to make a wretch His treasure.