Romans 7:4 - Dead to the Law

Romans 7:2-4
For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.

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.

Focussing mainly on V4 (Paragraph 2)

"Died to the law" does not mean that we don't have to obey it. Paul is following on from Chapter 6 where he has clearly explained that when saved, we need to obey the law and serve God. So what does dead to the law mean? Well, (as far as I can tell) it means dead to the condemnation of the law. To be accepted by God through the law, one must be perfect. Yet "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). We cannot please God through the law. Yet we (christians) are dead to the law - Christ lived perfectly, and took our sin and God's wrath against our sin (the condemnation) when he died on the cross. By turning to Christ, we are 'dead to the law' and belong to Christ. "Belong" can be translated "married", so it's linked to the analogy from v2-3. We are united to Christ, we belong to him, therefore we need to do what he says. One verse that comes to mind: 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
We don't belong to ourselves, we belong to God. When Paul mentions that Jesus was raised to life, I think he is referring back to Chapter 6, where he explains that we are alive with Christ, to live for God. We metaphorically died to the law and to sin when Christ died and we were converted and we metaphorically rose with him to new life, leading to obedience or 'bearing fruit'. Once genuinely saved, a Christian will act like it, we need to bear fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). So are you obeying God? Or are you trying to live for yourself? Christ is the only way to be saved from God's just wrath against our sinfulness! Repent and Believe for the Kingdom of God is at hand! (Mark 1:15)

Isaiah 5-9: General Thoughts

ust read Isaiah 5-10, heres some observations/thoughts. It's a bit lengthy, but hopefully helpful!

Isaiah 5
v1-7 is on the vineyard as a metaphor for Israel. Jesus used the same metaphor and basically repeats these verses in a number of parables (See Matt 21, Luke 13).

v20
"Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter."
This is our society isn't it? We glorify getting drunk and sleeping around. Swearing isn't even noticed, tv shows only get good ratings if they offer betrayal, lust and other sins. The chapter goes on to describe God's wrath against such people. Repent and Believe! Reject God and he will reject you. Turn to him and he offers salvation through Jesus!

Isaiah 6:5
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

We are sinful and need to repent, we need to recognise our sins, and in Jesus there is forgiveness and mercy. Then we need to go and obey God where he sends us.

v14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 8:14-15
He will be a holy place;
    for both Israel and Judah he will be
a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.
And for the people of Jerusalem he will be
    a trap and a snare.
Many of them will stumble;
    they will fall and be broken,
    they will be snared and captured.”

Jesus written all over these.

Isaiah 7:9b
'If you do not stand firm in your faith,
    you will not stand at all.’

We either serve and have faith in God, or we don't. Theres no middle ground, The devil owns the fence.

Isaiah 9:1-7
Again, all about Jesus

v9-21
All about God's wrath. He is just and will put an end to sin. Repent and believe! Turn to him!

I've skipped over so much in this - if your stuck for something to read then take a look at Isaiah :)

1 Corinthians 1:18-25: Human 'wisdom' v The gospel.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25: 
"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

It isn't about how well we argue, it isn't about what words we use, it's about God, about sharing the gospel, an it involves humility to do so. To simply say what the bible says instead of trying to justify it with human wisdom. God can convict anyone by the Holy Spirit - it isn't our job to persuade. Just preach the gospel truthfully, completely and faithfully!

Quick thoughts: Romans 6:20-23

Romans 6:20-23
When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Again, just a few quick thoughts:

- Slaves to sin means being free from righteousness, therefore now that we are slaves to righteousness/God, we should be free from sin. There is no excuse!
- There is no true benefit to sin, it brings a small amount of satisfaction here which does not last, and even if it does, it results in death physically and spiritually leading to God's eternal wrath in hell since he is just and must punish sin.
- Being Slaves of God (Christians) has benefit: forgiveness, no guilt, no fear of death or condemnation, God's mercy and grace eternally, eternal life with God, comfort and strength here, etc.
- Wages is what your paid for your actions. So sin results in death, it's the 'reward' for sinfulness. But eternal life (resulting from salvation/turning to Christ) is a gift - we don't deserve it in any way, and we have no reason to boast.

Romans 6:19 - Whose Slave are You?

Romans 6:19
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.

Some quick thoughts. For Christians:
1. Theres no place for pride.
2. Theres no place for continually living in sin and serving sin.
3. We should remember/be reminded of our sins often and so be constantly repentant of them, thankful to God for Christ and forgiveness, Joyful that we are completely forgiven, remain humble and to cause us to work harder at serving God
4. Imagine if we put as much effort into our walk with God as we do to sin. Small example: Instead of swearing, imagine if we were instead sharing the gospel. We easily put effort into sin and fulfilling our own desires, yet we hardly put any effort into our faith, hardly read the bible, hardly tell people about Christ and hardly live as if we were saved from sin.

"it should be a source of lamentation and mourning with Christians that it is not so; that they have employed so mighty energies in the cause of Satan, and do so little in the service of God." - Barnes

Romans 6:17 "Wholehearted Obedience"

Romans 6:17

"But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted."

Just a (hopefully) quick thought on this verse. As Christians, we need to "wholeheartedly" obey God, to completely and fully give ourselves to serving him, to give our entire lives to him, as slaves of righteousness (See v16).

Tying that more specifically to the next part of the verse: "the form of teaching to which you were entrusted." How do we obey God? We obey his teaching (the bible) which has been entrusted to us. Entrusted = given, but with trust involved. Like in the parable of the talents (Matt 25:14-30), the tenants are entrusted with money. So, we have been given God's word, what do we do with it? We can either use it or waste it.

Using it would involve using it wholeheartedly, using it as much as possible, reading it, thinking about it, memorising it, talking about it, listening to people explain it (i.e. going to church), and the like.
Wasting it (obviously) would be to not read it, to not put time and effort into knowing God's word.

Now, lets compare it to ourselves. We have God's word readily available. We have churches - PLENTY of churches. We are not persecuted, and are hardly even mocked by others for our faith. We do not suffer for it. Yet, how often do we read it? Daily? Weekly? Not even that? Explain to me how that fits with "Wholeheartedly obeying". It just doesn't! We (I included) waste our time so much instead of using it to obey God.

So, what are we going to do about it?

A little bit of a side note: Even if we do that, note the first bit of the verse: "Thanks be to God". We can only wholeheartedly obey God if he by his grace has saved us through Christ Otherwise we are slaves to sin, and deserving God's wrath. So, "repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand!" Jesus alone saves, and it is only by his grace that we can get out of sin and obey God. (See the rest of Romans 6). That's what its "thanks be to God. We have nothing to be proud about, even if we are doing the right things - all glory belongs to God! 

Hunger and Thirst

Matthew 5:6
 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled."

This is the last of the Beatitudes which relates directly to our relationship with God. Blessed means under God's favour. It does not always mean physical blessing here, but God's favour is worth more then any blessing we could experience here and means eternal life with him in heaven.

Those who Hunger and Thirst. Those two attributes are not very common in the western world. We have so much available for us, but what Jesus is talking about here is an intense longing, forsaking everything else if you could only get this one thing. Like if you had not eaten and were about to die from it, or had not drunk water. That is how much we need to Love righteousness and seek after it. But first we need to realise that we need it. This again links back to the former beatitudes: If we are poor in spirit, then we see our need before God. Mourning is about Mourning over our sin. Meekness is an action which results from these two things, and hungering and thirsting for righteousness also stems from it. It is the opposite of self-righteousness, it is humility and realising that we cannot help ourselves. As a result of genuine faith and repentance we will seek to do good works. We will hunger and thirst for righteousness. We need to have an intense longing for it.

So, What is Righteousness? It is rightness in character before God and also rightness in actions before men. Obeying God's commands. Obviously, since we are all sinful we cannot make ourselves righteous before God. In fact, naturally we are the opposite - disobeying God continually. Yet we have hope: Jesus was righteous, he did not sin and he is God - so he did all that God requires. He died in our place, taking our sin and the punishment for it while we take his righteousness. We are forgiven for our sin and adopted as God's children! What a blessing! 

But while there is a once off side to righteousness, it is also part of 'sanctification' - we are continually becoming more like God, continually learning and growing and continually need to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness. This exhibits itself in our lives as good works and by fleeing from sin. So, are you living a life by which others will see God in you and be challenged by it? Are you striving to be righteous?