Romans 8:1-17
Therefore, if you are living out your faith is response to Christ's love, you can stop worrying about "judgment day"- It's not happening, not today, not ever.
Why not? Because there's a new Sheriff in town! And now the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has liberated you from your old, bad, unhealthy addiction to the tyranny of sin and death.
The Law could not save you – it proved too weak a match for the tyranny and deceitfulness of sin and death. You never held up your end of that covenant. But God has established a new covenant, a new commitment in and through Christ. Christ, fully human as He was and is, a man just like us, showed the limited power of sin and death when sins were heaped upon him; death followed closely behind. But then, God (in Christ) outmatched the limited power of sin and death by unleashing the unlimited, unmatched power of Life in the Resurrection. Sin and death were weighed and found wanting! He is now the new Power, the new Sheriff in town, and now the rules have changed.
Now the great expectations of the Law (the Torah) can be fulfilled. We can live up to the best hopes of the Torah when we are walking, arm in arm with Christ as opposed to hobbling along using the Torah as a failing crutch.
It's a whole new mindset now. Walking with Christ, by His Spirit which now resides in me, with me and around me, I find myself preoccupied with Him and not myself, not anymore.
I now know that my pre-occupation with myself got me/gets me nothing- well, nothing except failure, pain and the deathliness I keep hearing about. But I've noticed that my pre-occupation with my new walking partner has me on a path toward life and peace.
Before, when I walked with the crutch of the Law, preoccupied with....well.....me, I resented God. I got so frustrated with my inability to live without failing and falling. I started asking, "Why would God make this so hard for me/us?" "What's the point in trying?"
At that point, in that dark place, I was completely unable, completely incapable of pleasing God.
But now, having been separated from that old addiction by my baptism into a new covenant relationship, I belong to Christ, and if you do too, then you and I can now enjoy the same, life-giving air in our lungs (the Spirit) that filled Christ's lungs at his Resurrection. If you aren't yet enjoying this wind of the Spirit, you are missing out.
Things are different for me now. With this Spirit filling my lungs and my life, though my life is still subject to and even tempted by the "deathliness" of my day to day life, I don't have to lose those battles anymore. The Spirit of Christ, faithful without fail, can keep me on the journey toward Life.
Honestly, if the Spirit can lift Christ from death to life, don't you think that same Spirit can bring Life to your life, even when your body lies silent in the grave??
All of us who now have received this Spirit of life are eternally grateful for it and gladly in debt- not to this me-oriented culture,
becasue we already know and remember what that old culture gets us- sin and then death. But if we live out of our indebtedness to Christ and live for something or Someone other than ourselves, Life comes back to us as the gift God intended for it to be in the first place.
And there's even more. Every time I turn around it seems that I have more and more family. All of us who are led by God are brothers and sisters, all of us.
This isn't anymore about slavery and fear; it's about family and all the good stuff you get when you've got good family: love, forgiveness, reconciliation, peace, belonging. WE ARE FAM-I-LEE and God Himself is our Father, our Dad, our Pop, Papa, Daddy, whatever. He's there, with us, every day, and in the house every night.
And the Spirit of Christ himself, God's Son, is the one who convinces us, more and more every day, that we belong to God the Father, JUST AS MUCH AS HE DOES!
And if that's really true, the we are heirs, along with Christ- heirs of God the Father, as we walk the path of Christ, as hard as that might be, no matter the cost, showing again and again and again that there's still no equal to the power of God's love- a love that can bring life and hope to the most desperate and deathly situation.
|
Romans 8:18-30
Believe me, I know things get tough these days- I’ve seen it myself, I’ve experienced it myself. But somehow I know that you and I are parts of something bigger, something better, something that God has begun and will finish in His time. This God-created Life, all of it, seems to be waiting for us to take our places as the children and partners of God Himself. This created Life seems to limp along at times, doesn’t it? It’s almost as if the Good King has disappeared and chaos has taken the throne. And sometimes it looks like the Good King left to prove a point! And this seems to be the point: that the time is coming when the people of God, the body of Christ, will recognize their calling and identity and take their places as Godly-placed stewards and servants, deputized to bring Life and peace to all Creation. Looking around, it does seem like we (Christ’s Body) need to do something. Everywhere I look I see pain; the sounds of pain and agony echo in my ears- the kind of anguish reminiscent of someone having a baby-there’s life and hope to come, but pain and anguish between now and then. To be honest, those pains and cries resonate with me (us) too. Now that I (we) have a glimpse of and an appetite for what God wants for all Creation, I know that things are not the way they are supposed to be, not the way God dreams for them to be. God isn’t finished yet- not with me, not with us as His people, not with Life. But now I know why God has called and claimed me- I can now be part of the solution, part of God’s dream for it all- even if don’t live long enough to see it all come together. Somehow I know we’re in store for something bigger than I can see today. I can’t see it all yet, but I’m okay to wait on God and do my part. To be brutally honest, there are days when I’m pretty sure God has blown it by entrusting work like this to people like us-not only do I doubt my ability to do it, I don’t know if I have the words or the imagination to pray for it! It’s on those days that I’m most thankful that He hasn’t left us alone. The God who came near in Christ stays nearin the Spirit, and that same Spirit aches along with us, praying the prayers we can’t put words to. God, the One who searches our hearts, is looking and listening for the anguished voice of the Spirit constantly present with each of us. He finds that voice within us every time, pleading and praying for God’s will to be done both in us and through us. No matter what happens to us, we know that God can weave anything and everything back into His dreams forus- His people, His children, His chosen means of mission and ministry. From the beginning, God has been looking for a body “designed” to image Him to the world. Christ is the best expression of an embodied God, and now, having been baptized into Christ and breathing His Spirit, we, the Church, are parts of this same body, same family.
|
Romans 8:31-39
So now, where does all of this leave us? It means that God is on our side, and when when that’s the case, it doesn’t matter who or what might be on the other side.
Because, as we have seen in Christ’s cross, God will hold nothing back when it comes to his love for us.
So what does it matter when we face accusations of any kind. There is no higher authority than that of the one who has already decided for us.
And we don’t fear the judgment of any ruler or throne. Our King, our living, dying and living King- he has the Father’s ear, and he is working and speaking on ourbehalf.
Nothing will ever come between us and Christ’s love for us, I promise you. I’ve been through so much over the last few years, but I’ve not been alone. I’ve never suffered in solitude. For the cause of Christ, I’ve suffered just like those before me have suffered for our Cause. But even in the midst of my pain, I’ve never doubted the outcome and neither should you. God loves us and his love has tipped the scales forever in our favor. Listen to me, I know this- that nothing can and nothing will come between us and the Love of God we see most clearly in Christ our King: not death, nothing in this life, not any other supernatural power, not any earthly power, not anything that is happening now, not anything that will happen in the future, no force of any kind in the heavens above or the depths below- nothing in all of Creation can put any distance between Him and us.
|
Romans 12:1-2
PLEASE, now that you’ve seen the face of God in Christ, PLEASE give yourself, totally and completely- all that you are, all that you have, everything about you- back to the God who’s already given Himself to you! Step forward, place your entire life on an altar of sacrifice, give yourself wholly to him and then live out your worship- don’t just sing it or say it! God wants you, all of you. You are the desire of God.
And make sure that you won’t anymore be assimilated into the mindset of this age, but allow yourself to be re-organized, re-made, transfigured, as your mindset and imagination are renovated. Then, with your improved eyesight, you’ll be able to see where you can jump in and take part in what God is doing. And by the way, what God is doing is good, beautiful and headed for completion.
|
Romans 12:9-21
Drain all hypocrisy out of your love. Here’s what I mean: Despise evil in all its forms while keeping a tight grip on the good. Do not hesitate to communicate your affection for one another, and lead the way in respecting and honoring one another. Don’t get lazy, but maintain and build your fiery passion to serve our God and His Mission. Celebrate our Hope; learn to take a deep breath when facing trouble, and continue to make time for prayer. Give of your means when there is a need within the Body you can meet, and at the same time, open your home to those who don’t yet belong.
Speaking of the outsiders- the “not-yet-belonging” people who may in fact be doing you damage- respond in grace and blessing and not by cursing them or cursing at them! Celebrate with your neighbors who have something to celebrate; cry and ache with your neighbors (whoever they might be) when there’s reason to cry. Find common ground with those around you; don’t give in to fear or an air of superiority that could force you into a bunker mentality. Risk relationship with everyone, no matter their payscale. Remember, you are not better or smarter than any of these people, not in the eyes of God.
The cycle of violence (physical, verbal or otherwise) stops with you. You are being watched, so think it through before you react to something; take your time and make decisions that improve the common good. People will notice. Do everything in your power to win and keep the peace between you and anyone/everyone around you. My people who are ALREADY loved by God, never take the law into your own hands. Vigilante justice has no place in this Body. Trust that your loving God, who has been known to get angry, will make His wishes known; He’s already moving in that direction. Remember what He said, “Vengeance is not your job. I will judge between right and wrong, and I’ll take care of it.”
So what do we do in the meantime? It’s simple- simple to say but not all that simple to pull off- when your enemy is hungry, find him something to eat. When your enemy is thirsty, find her something to drink. When you do these things, you start the wheels of change, and who knows where it will end up? Maybe someone’s heart will be changed; maybe an entire household or church or village will be changed?
So how will we, the Body, deal with the Evil we see so powerfully displayed on a daily basis? Will we be defeated? We will deal with Evil by conquering it, outlasting it, exhausting it- with the Good that has already overcome.
|