Romans1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
||
Romans Chapter 1
Paul writes this book himself to the believers in Rome. He introduces himself as an apostle. He was called out from the world and his former life to be an apostle to bring the gospel to the Gentiles. His life took on a new meaning. It was a radical change. We can read of his conversion in the book of Acts. We see that before his conversion he had religious zeal but for the wrong religion in which he persecuted believers in Jesus Christ, and after his conversion, he had the same zeal for the gospel. Jesus stopped him in this tracks and called him out of darkness into the marvelous light of the gospel which he not only accepted himself but wasn't satisfied until he exhausted all efforts to preach the gospel to as many as he could. The name apostle in the day of the apostles did not mean the same as we my think in today's world of hierarchy and titles. Apostle simply meant a messenger or ambassador to bring the message of the gospel. It wasn't the same as when we promote someone with an important title and then address him with that title placing him as lord over a others. A true bishop, pastor or apostle is a messenger or servant. He is never to be exalted higher than the laity.
The salvation that comes to us by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ was promised in the Old Testament scriptures. Moses spoke of Him in Deuteronomy 18:
The Messiah also was promised to come as a priest and as the seed of David. The Psalms speak of this promised one.
There is a saying that the gospel is in the Old Testament concealed and in the New Testament revealed.
There are many more Old Testament scriptures that foretell of the coming of the Messiah. God gave to the world a cloud of witnesses. All these things were not witnessed by only one man but by many living at different times in Old Testament history. This promised one was Jesus Christ who died for sins and after three days the Spirit of God brought Him alive again. This spirit of holiness is the same spirit that will raise us from the dead in the first resurrection if we are counted worthy to obtain that resurrection. We can obtain it by turning from sin and believing in Jesus Christ. We then can and should desire to live and walk in obedience to the spirit of God that comes within us after we believe.
The Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of sin then draws us to Jesus Christ for remission of sins. When He calls and we answer that calling by obedience to the spirit, we become saints. Beloved, no church can proclaim us to be saints, we are saints the moment we believe. Believe in Jesus means to turn from sin and turn our life completely over to Him. To really believe is to believe in what He teaches and follow His example. A verse in Hebrews says to follow peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. True conversion to Jesus Christ will bring forth the fruit of holiness. Not legalism, but holiness which is supposed to radiate from within us when we continually walk in obedience to Christ.
This is what literally will happen, when we walk in the spirit and do not fulfill the lust of the flesh. People will notice and we will gain a reputation that we walk with Christ. If we claim the salvation of Jesus Christ and return to sin we bring terrible reproach upon the gospel and the name of Jesus.
This is the way believers show care one for another. We pray for one another fervently and without ceasing. We long to see people we teach and edify, receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit and we should always rejoice when we see other believers exercising the gifts of the spirit that God uses through them to edify even more believers. We are to edify one another always by teaching, prophesying, preaching, testifying (by the leading of the spirit, not just telling stories), comforting, exhorting, encouraging and at times correcting error. It would seem here that Paul desired to come to them right away but was led by the spirit to go preach to others also. Notice that the prosperity he mentions was a prosperous journey, not riches. He wanted to be fruitful by imparting the gifts of the spirit to believers and preaching the gospel to save the lost. The prosperity Paul talked of means simply to be successful in the work of the spirit, not in the things of the world.
If Paul would have had enough strength and opportunity, he would have went all over the known world at the time. He had the zeal.
The gospel was for the Jewish people, and to the Gentiles. Salvation is for all who will believe. It is a message that we should never be ashamed to speak and live before men.
Once we come to Christ, His righteousness covers us and we then begin to live by faith. We live from faith today to faith tomorrow. It is a continual walk until the return of the Lord. We live by faith, walk by faith and endeavoring not to return to unbelief which will hinder our walk. We do this by keeping up an active prayer life and never forsaking this private time with the Lord. This builds faith. We build this faith also by worshipping with fellow believers and by studying the written word God so graciously provided for us by our Lord.
Now we see that Paul shows us here that our faith and obedience to the word of God causes us to escape the wrath which is to be poured out upon the world that refuses to repent and turn to God. Their rejection of God results in even more ungodliness and unrighteousness. They even suppress the truth with their ungodly deeds. To suppress the truth happens in many ways. They once knew who created the world but they purposely turned from Him in rebellion and turned to false gods, idols and false religion trying to find a god to worship that will allow them to keep their sin and still supposedly be okay in the end. There is a satanic spirit behind all images and false gods who will allow sin but also brings oppression and bondage. They promise liberty but in the end all who follow that way will become servants of the very sin they desired. We can suppress the truth also by knowing the salvation through Jesus Christ but having so many rituals, ceremonies, commandments of men and junk that the gospel is hidden or ignored so that no one is ever saved from sin. This could describe some churches today.
See why we are to avoid images like the plague. When we make an image to represent Jesus, Mary or God, we are changing the glory of God into an image like us. Idolatry is the worse thing we can do to separate ourselves from God. False religion will enter our midst and deceive us if we bow down to an image whether or not the image represents the real God. Stay away from this stuff. This is the religion of Babylon. When we pursue this stuff without repenting, we will get turned over to it. God gives us up and that false religious spirit will destroy us. To remedy this, just repent and get back to the right fellowship with God. He provided for us a way out of sin. Jesus Christ.
Unnatural sex is caused by society first rejecting God, rejecting His holiness and rebelling against His way of salvation. Anything God does not sanction or ordain is dangerous. God creates things and gives commandments for our good, not to make us miserable. Sadly we have gone so far in my own country away from God that marriage between people of the same sex is actually encouraged. I noticed that when the supreme court allowed this in 2016, violence, confusion, school shootings, riots, racial tension, mental illness, gender confusion has increased. Also hurricanes and other natural disasters have increased. Hatred and disrespect for those that teach God's word, that still stand for the constitution and for adhering to the knowledge of God, is higher than I've ever seen it in my lifetime.
Genuine holiness in the life of a believer by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit will keep us out of the sin that will destroy our body and our soul if we yield to the Holy Spirit that is given to us. Naturally if we resist the Holy Spirit, we will return to the sin we were saved from. We still have our free will. The Holy Spirit will continually try to draw us back into fellowship with God, the more we resist God though the harder it is to return but we can return. God wants to save, not destroy.
If we insist on rebellion and rejecting God this is what happens little by little until society is like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Now we see why we see so much of this in our world today. It starts by simply turning away from God and doing our own thing. If we do not have God in our lives, Satan will be free to occupy the part of our soul that God is supposed to fill. Even in the world around us. The more of God we have in our country, the less power Satan will have. The less of God we have the more power Satan has to steak, kill and destroy. We need God more than we even realize it. I believe in a literal fire burning hell but I believe if there was no hell it would still be hell to not have God in my life. The real God cannot come into our lives except through Jesus. That is why Jesus came to be a mediator and bring us to God by first washing away our sin. Then we can receive the Holy Spirit to abide with us forever. Without this Holy Spirit we are empty.
I can't think of a hell any worse than
not having His holy Spirit within me.
|
||
HOME |
SITE MAP |
BIBLE STUDY INDEX
dorna@oldpathlighthouse.com ©2018 oldpathlighthouse.com |