One is that we try with all our might to stop sinning (legalism).  But what we find is that in spite of all our efforts, we can never, by our own efforts, free ourselves from sin.  Those of us who are in this catagory end up leading miserable lives because of the awareness of our failures.  This issue the Apostle Paul deals with in Romans 7.

The other is that we decide that overcoming sin is impossible and we give up (fatalism).  We don’t try to overcome sin.  We just continue wallowing around in the pig sty relying on God’s grace to take care of us.  Those of us who are in this state are usually miserable, too.  We are just in denial, because as long as we continue in our sin, we will reap death in our lives, no matter how much of God’s grace we think we have.  This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 6.

The Apostle Paul says that there is another way, a way that we need to believe in and reach for.  He says that we need to experience the death and resurrection in Jesus in our lives today.  The death of the cross so that we can die to sin.  The resurrection of Jesus so that we can experience His life.  Consider yourselves dead indeed to sin but alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord (6:11). 

This third option solves all the problems of the two ways we Christians usually think.  It provides the right living that the legalists are looking for, but without our own failed efforts.  But more importantly, this option gives the fatalists hope, hope that indeed there is power to overcome sin, even if it is not within ourselves, a power that God has, by His own sovereign will, decided to bestow upon us.

So, shall we continue in sin so we can have more of God’s grace?  No.  Let God kill you and then bring to life inside you a new creature that is not subject to sin (6:14).  Some want to stay at the cross.  Die already!  And move on to the resurrection and live in resurrection life today.

Listen to the song “Free From The Works Of The Devil.”

The last few days we have been inundated with prominent Christians supporting, or at least leaning toward accepting, homosexuality.  I do not hate gay people and I would never do anything hateful or hurtful to anyone for being gay.  It’s disgusting that many Christians spew hateful speech toward gays.  But this issue has become prominent in society and it is one that easily illustrates a real issue I see in the church today. 

There are really just two main points to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  One is that because of Adam’s disobedience we are all born into corruption and sin.  Because of that, we are all born with tendencies toward sin of one kind or another.  The second point of the Gospel is, and this really is the good news, that through the blood of Jesus and His resurrection from the dead, we can receive deliverance from that corruption — not just in name, but in fact.  All those sins that we are prone to can be removed from our beings if we are willing to accept it.

What makes me sad about all this is that Christians seem to be rejecting both points.  In this debate about homosexuality, those prominent leaders who come out in favor of homosexuality are saying that God made them this way.  If God made them this way, it must be good.  If it’s good then it is not corrupt.  And since they are saying that they are not born in corruption, they are saying that they do not need, or are not looking for, the deliverance that comes from Christ.  They want to accept and joy in “the way God made them.”  And this we do, not just with homosexuality, but with all the other selfishness, sins and perversions we are not willing to let go. 

But my point is not to come down on anyone or their sin.  I am here to say that God loves us so much that He sent His Son Jesus into the world to not only save us from the penalty of sin, but also to deliver us in this life from these corruptions and sins we were born with.  It would be my desire that we all come to this knowledge so we all can have lives that are full of the righteousness, peace and joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

But here in Romans 5, Paul is telling us to not sweat the details.  Our attempts to devise programs and plans to fix us are useless and futile.  All we need to do is believe God.  It is God that sent Jesus to die on the cross for sinners.  It is God that sent Jesus to became the one who reversed the effects of Adam’s disobedience.  It is God who makes grace abound to whatever extent sin abounds.  Believe the love of the one who gave up the life of His Son to give us life.

So when Christ comes to you and beckons you to His Kingdom, don’t sweat over how He is going to deal with your sin.  He has a plan and He is working the plan.  That plan will be fulfilled in you when you let Him do the work.

The only way we can evaluate whether being justified by faith is easier than being justified by works is to study Paul’s definition of faith. What was Paul’s definition of faith? He gives it to us in chapter four of Romans. Abraham faith wasn’t just in that God exists. He didn’t just believe that Jesus died on the cross. Abraham didn’t just believe in God, He believed what God said enough to do something about it. Abraham did not fall under the weight of God’s exceedingly great promises, but was strong in faith, and he was completely persuaded that what God had promised, He was going to do. This is the kind of faith that Paul says we are justified by.

Now we have to evaluate ourselves. Do we believe that God exists? Do we believe that Jesus died on a cross and resurrected from the dead? Even the devils believe these things. We have to believe and accept gung-ho that Jesus wants to fill us with springs of living water. We must accept and receive to ourselves the exceedingly great power God has demonstrated toward those who believe. This is the kind of faith that we are justified by. Do you have that faith?

I have created a 20-minute musical presentation based on this thought. You can listen to it at http://bit.ly/kpmusic.

The righteousness of God is revealed when just people live by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That’s because Abraham had hope in the things God had said even when he should not have had hope. Though the promises of God to him seemed impossible to bear, he did not fall under their weight. He was strong in faith and gave glory to God because he was fully persuaded in his heart that what God had promised, He was also able to perform. Do you want to be a son of Abraham? Do you want righteousness imputed to you? Then, do not stagger at the exceeding greatness of the power God has exerted toward those who have come to Him.

Our faith in Christ isn’t just wishing in the dark, or believing in vague or unsure things. Jesus said that if we believe on Him, we would have rivers of living water flowing from our innermost beings. Before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus told Martha that He indeed is the resurrection and the life. He told her that if any one would believe on Him, if He were dead, he would live, and if he were alive, he would never die. In another place Jesus told us that those who would believe on Him would never hunger or thirst. So we are not believing in the dark, nor in things that we don’t know about, but in an all-emcompassing life through Jesus Christ that permeates our present existence as well as causing us to live forever.

So, are you going to concern your mind about what evil people are doing, those who seem to be prospering when they do not put their faith in God? Why? For they will be cut down like the grass and wither away in the field. But trust in the Lord, and do good, and you will remain in the land and be fed. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto Him, and trust Him, and He will bring good things to pass for you.

Now, Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. For a long time that statement from scripture seemed cryptic to me. It was like there was some hidden code in this message. But the Spirit revealed to me that all this means is that when God declares something to be true, or that it is indeed going to come to pass, He sends faith ahead of the fulfillment of the event to give us courage and make us strong.

Today… if you will hear God’s voice, do not harden your heart. Believe to see the exceedingly great things God will do for you.

What is law? It is putting our complete dependence on what we can do for ourselves rather than on what God is doing.

Beginning in Romans 5, the apostle Paul tells us what God is doing. But it is so magnificent that most people do not ever receive it. Because it is so magnificent, and seemingly out of our reach, we become like the children of Israel who loved the comfort of Egypt (the power of the work of their own hands) over the the promise (the work of God’s hand). In the mean time, Paul is telling us not to stagger or stumble at what he is about to say (4:20), but live in it.

Everything we have in Christ is the work of His hand. Forgiveness, righteousness, holiness, joy, peace, financial prosperity are all in His hands, and will be given to us by His work. There are no work we can do — personal attempts at piety, meditation, tithing — that will bring us the blessing of the promise. It all comes from God’s work through Jesus Christ.

Let us choose to rest in faith rather than exhaust ourselves in the hard work of the law.

And their are some in the world that do hold to a believing is seeing ideal. The movie The Santa Clause with Tim Allen is a proponent of believing is seeing when it comes to Santa. Many positive thinkers and self-help gurus speak the believing is seeing mantra. But misplaced believing is self delusion.

The only believing is seeing that has any worth is in God through Jesus Christ. He is the One who gives life to the dead. He is the one who calls things which be not as though they were. We can hope against hope because of Him. His promises are great! We must not be knocked back, or throw up our hands in defeat, when we see the monumental things He is giving to us through faith. We will see His promises fulfilled in us because we are fully persuaded in our hearts that the things God has promised He will certainly do.

Believing is seeing what God will do!

First of all, what is the great treasure? Paul describes it right before this (in verse 6) as God shining His light in our hearts so we can see and know the glory of God in the face of Jesus. But this is sandwiched in the middle of two great statements made by the Apostle Paul. These statements describe in more detail what He means by this.

In the first (in 3:18), Paul tells us where he is viewing the glory of God in the face of Jesus. He said he was looking in a mirror. He said we can look in the spiritual mirror and see the glory of the Lord, and realize that we have been changed into the glory of God in the face of Jesus, the face we are seeing in the mirror, by the Spirit of the Lord.

In the second (in 5:17), he wants to make sure that we understand that he is not just being metaphoric. He says that if we are in Christ, we are new creatures. All the things that were in the earthen vessel because of the fall of Adam have been removed from us. We have been recreated with totally new material. The same material that Jesus is made of. This is why we can look in the mirror and see Jesus, because we are inside Him and made of His material.

For this reason, though we see the earthen vessel with our natural eyes, we no longer consider it as anything. We no longer know people after the old man (5:16). We look not at the things seen with the natural eye (4:18). So I’m not going to look at the earthen vessel, the clay pot, and make judgments about myself and others. I will put my focus on the great treasure that’s inside.

But we can’t make the truth of God subject to our experiences. (The truth is that the very purpose of Christ coming and dying on a cross, and then raising from the dead, was to give us a righteous heart leading to righteous living.) Sure, in science, every theory has to be tested by experience. Scientists conduct experiments to see what experiences occur under controlled circumstances. Because we are accustomed to that thought process, we apply it to our experiences. If we haven’t experienced it, it can’t be true. But the truth of God is not subject to our experiences. Let God be true and every man a liar (Rom. 3:4).

The law failed because it could only address conditions that we could imaging or control. Faith succeeds because it takes us beyond our experiences to a place we’ve never been before. It takes us to a promised land of a righteous heart leading to righteous living.

So don’t subject God to your experiences. Subject your experiences to God. See what that does for you.

So the real deal is what people will see when our lights shine in the world (see Matthew 5:16). Will they glorify God because of the goodness that is coming out from us? Or, will they curse God because they were looking for rivers of living water, but all they found in us was desert sand? Are we shining as the light of holiness in this world? Or, is our light as dark as the evil around us?

Wake up people! Satan has lied to us! God did not call us just to leave us in our sin. God called us to lead us to righteousness and holiness (1 Thess. 4:7), without which no one will see the Lord (Heb. 12:14). He has called us to a life that, when the light is shined on us, men will not curse God for our sin, but praise Him because of our goodness.