The Year I turned to Jesus. Abiding Together through the Book of Romans: Romans chapter 5 & 6.

Hi Friends! God and His timing is always perfect! Last week unfortunately I wasn’t able to complete my written lesson in the way I hoped. So today by God’s grace, I am asking the Lord to help me tackle both Romans 5 & 6. Both of these chapters cover SO MANY amazing TRUTHS, so I humbly ask God for His wisdom to share the TRUTH of HIS WORD with You!

Thank you Lord for your amazing WORD! You ALWAYS have so much truth in Your Word for us. Thank you our Creator God, God of the Universe that You would be so kind to give us Your Word to know You, Your Will, and who we are in You. We pray that through the study of Your Word today that we can better serve You and the purposes You have for us. We love You Lord. Amen

Romans chapter 5 has been one of my favorite chapters so far! I love that it is basically the summary of all that we have established so far in the first 5 chapters in verse 1. WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH!

‘Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘ Romans 5:1

So to jog your memory so far in Romans we have already read:

For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “ But the righteous will live by faith .” Romans 1:17 (This is the famous verse that Martin Luther read when He finally understood that He was saved by faith and not by works! Praise Jesus for this amazing Good News for all of us! You can read more about this here!)

And we have also read: For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God , and it was counted to him as righteousness” Romans 4:3

Abraham a real person created by God, known as our father of our faith (see Romans 4) and understood to be in the genealogy of Jesus Christ (see Matthew 1:2). Was made righteous by his faith! So praise God that we can also now understand that we are too made righteous by faith. Thank you Jesus that we are saved by placing our faith in You, and not by what WE DO! Thank you God that Romans 1-5 helps us understand this essential truth of our Christian faith.

BREATHE DEEPLY UNDERSTANDING OUR SALVATION IS BY GRACE!!

And praise God that right after this reminder of our justification (made right before a Holy God) in Romans 5:1, the Lord through Paul kindly reminds us that through Christ Jesus and His forgiveness of our sins by HIS DEATH on the cross, we gain peace with God!! Praise God!!!

‘ 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. ‘ Romans 5:1-2

I listened to one of my favorite Pastors, Pastor Gilchrist of University Fellowship Church, and he helped me understand this peace which we gain in Christ. And, he did such an amazing job at explaining this so I definitely recommend listening to his Romans 5 sermons that are actually broken up into 3 sermons here. Pastor Brett pointed out that Yes this peace is a feeling that we can feel at times, but more than that; it’s the standing we now have as born again believers with God. Before this gift of faith from Christ, we were not at peace with God. In fact, we were actually at war with God. Without Jesus Christ we were God’s enemy! But this is what THE AMAZING GIFT of JESUS CHRIST is to the believer! While we were enemies, Jesus Christ died for us, and through His death we can be made right, “reconciled” to a Holy God, and we will forever stand in His Grace. NOW that WE have peace with God through faith!

‘For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. ‘Romans 5:6-11

WE WERE UNGODLY ENEMIES TO GOD, yet HE STILL DIED FOR US! 😭 We didn’t earn it, or work for it, we just had to accept it and place our trust in Him, and we were able to receive it! We have GRACE, PEACE, & FORGIVENESS in CHRIST JESUS!!

✨✨✨✨✨✨I’M pausing HERE- because if this passage of truth doesn’t move your heart. I encourage you to stop and pray to Jesus to understand it & receive it! This is the GOSPEL right here!! This is the Hope it which we have!✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

In Christ Jesus we were saved from the wrath of God, because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross! EVEN though we did NOTHING to deserve it!!

✨✨✨✨✨THE UNGODLY ENEMY OF GOD IS MADE RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH IN CHRIST. WE RECEIVE RECONCILIATION TO OUR HOLY GOD. WE THEN STAND IN GRACE THAT CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY AND WE ARE FOREVER MADE AT PEACE WITH GOD.✨✨✨✨✨

THIS IS WHAT JESUS DID FOR US & BY HIS GRACE THROUGH FAITH THIS WHAT WE RECEIVE!!

What an amazing reminder of what our salvation does for us in this life and forever more!
Pastor Brett shared a story about a time when he was caught in a field fire, and as he was trying to help extinguish the fire he knew to go to the land that had already been scorched with flames. So with flames all around him he was able to tackle the fire with a hose from that spot because he stood in a safe place that had already been scorched with flames. This picture was to describe how securely we stand in grace as a believer in Christ Jesus. The flames of the enemy cannot consume us.

Jesus did all of this for us even though we were sinners, and then because of HIS LOVE for us He gave us the most MIRACULOUS gift. HIS HOLY SPIRIT!!! ✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️

“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. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. ‘ Romans 5:3-11

AMEN! Thank you Jesus for ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR THOSE WHO PLACE THEIR TRUST IN YOU!

I love Romans 5:12-21 Because these verses explain the importance of understanding Adam. The literal real Adam from Genesis in relationship to our real Jesus Christ. This understanding is near and dear to my heart as understanding the entirety of scripture as FACT apart from accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, has been one of the biggest blessings in my walk as a Christian. How can we actually believe in Jesus Christ born to a virgin as told in The Gospels, believe in all the miracles, and then also believe in the resurrection, but not believe in a literal Adam? It doesn’t make sense! And Paul, inspired by God, presents his case:

‘Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification…… For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Romans 5:12-17,21

Even this week, I was blessed by revisiting the creation account, and reflecting on the perfection of God’s creation that was found in the Garden before sin.

CHAPTER 6 DEAD TO SIN, ALIVE TO GOD!
Yay we made it to Chapter 6!

I love Chapter 6 because it now begins a new section of Romans that is assuring us of who we are now that we are in Christ. And, the sanctification (the process of becoming Holy) that will now take place in the heart of the TRUE believer!

Now in Christ our heart desires to live a NEW WAY!

‘What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we 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. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. ‘ Romans 6:1-7,10-11

So this is what our baptism literally symbolizes. Before Christ we were enslaved to sin. We were enemies to God just as we just learned in Romans 5. But, now by faith in Christ our old self, our sin nature has died. It was buried, and our old nature is dead. And now, just as Christ Jesus was raised from the dead, we as born again believers are raised into the newness of life in the grace of JESUS! We have now been set FREE from the sin that enslaves us. We have been set free from this world, and the enemy! We are no longer dead, WE ARE NOW ALIVE to GOD in Christ Jesus.

Dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. ‘ Romans 6:11 Think of your baptism dunking under the water, dead to sin, and rising above to breathe new air. Alive to God in Christ Jesus!!

YAYAYAYAYAYAAYYAAY!!!! Praise Jesus, this is the most wonderful news!!!!

Romans 6:12-23 then explains that since in Christ we have been made dead to sin. We now have a new master! We use to be a slave to sin and the death and destruction of this world. But now we are sons and daughters to King Jesus and get to live out our royalty!

‘Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace. Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.’ Romans 6:12-23

Hallelujah!!! Jesus Christ has freed us from the power of sin & now we can give ourselves to righteous living so that we can walk in the Holiness of Christ that leads us to eternal life!

I love these verses because they encourage us that we have a new master reining over our life. And our Master is good, He is wise, He is Holy, He is Sovereign, and above all He is God!

And now that we are made new by His blood, we sit securely in His grace, and we now have the Holy Spirit in us! And our 2 Corinthians 5:17 truth comes to mind!

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

Yes Praise God!! And let us encourage one another to walk in this newness, and to not go back to our old ways.

This passage from 2 Peter came to mind warning us to not return to our former way of life:

‘But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly teach destructive heresies and even deny the Master who bought them. In this way, they will bring sudden destruction on themselves. Many will follow their evil teaching and shameful immorality. And because of these teachers, the way of truth will be slandered. In their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money. But God condemned them long ago, and their destruction will not be delayed. For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment. And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood. Later, God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and turned them into heaps of ashes. He made them an example of what will happen to ungodly people. But God also rescued Lot out of Sodom because he was a righteous man who was sick of the shameful immorality of the wicked people around him. Yes, Lot was a righteous man who was tormented in his soul by the wickedness he saw and heard day after day. So you see, the Lord knows how to rescue godly people from their trials, even while keeping the wicked under punishment until the day of final judgment. He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings. These false teachers are like unthinking animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed. They scoff at things they do not understand, and like animals, they will be destroyed. Their destruction is their reward for the harm they have done. They love to indulge in evil pleasures in broad daylight. They are a disgrace and a stain among you. They delight in deception even as they eat with you in your fellowship meals. They commit adultery with their eyes, and their desire for sin is never satisfied. They lure unstable people into sin, and they are well trained in greed. They live under God’s curse. They have wandered off the right road and followed the footsteps of Balaam son of Beor, who loved to earn money by doing wrong. But Balaam was stopped from his mad course when his donkey rebuked him with a human voice. These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness. They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting. With an appeal to twisted sexual desires, they lure back into sin those who have barely escaped from a lifestyle of deception. They promise freedom, but they themselves are slaves of sin and corruption. For you are a slave to whatever controls you. And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”’ 2 Peter 2:1-22

Wow what a sad and disgusting image. Returning to our sin after tasting the goodness of Christ is like a dog returning to its vomit. Such a perfect reminder for us to lean into Jesus and cry out to Him for help so we can flee from temptation and walk in the TRUTH of who we are NOW in Christ.

I decided to read that whole passage from 2 Peter, because of the warning for us against false teachers that try to get us entangled in sin again. False teachers want us to return to our vomit like dogs. So we have to be discerning.

In this life we are going to find A LOT of people who call themselves Christians that say and do all sorts of things that will encourage us to be entangled in things that will bring us back to bondage with sin.

From entangling us with legalism, works, fear of man, being people pleasers, to being popular, and doing a host of things that the Bible clearly says is wrong and making them “OKAY.” Or even denying parts of God’s Word as true, historical, or calling them old fashioned. God tells us to flee from temptation, because we should run from what false teachers have to offer. They say they offer freedom with new ideas or their own reasoning, but a teaching that goes against God’s word is actually just enslaving us back to sin. False teachers are enemies to God and they want to drag us down with them.

So, I urge all of us to spend time in God’s word and in prayer so that we can discern lies from the TRUTH found in God’s Word!

And lastly, dwelling on the fact that our master is King Jesus! Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean that we don’t sin at times. But, it does mean that our heart doesn’t want to sin anymore. We are NOW SLAVES to Jesus! This might sound weird, but this is a good thing.

I thought about it like this today, when we were enemies to God, it was like we were tied to the enemy as he is going down into the pit of hell. We were literally being dragged slowly to hell in bondage to our sin, because we were slaves to a master whose final home is in hell.

But in Christ Jesus, we are slaves to a Master who sits at the righthand of the Father on the throne in Heaven. We are tied to Him. So as we are being sanctified we are slowly being drawn up to heaven with Him. We might bump around from time to time running into the things of this world on our way up, but eventually we will make our way up to heaven to be united with our Master there! And praise God, our tie to our Master Jesus can never be broken or separated! 

“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 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.” Romans 8:33-39 

Dear Jesus, thank you so much for what You have done for us! We thank you that You have made us dead to our sin, but alive in You! Please forgive us for the ways we have returned to our old self, and please help us walk in a manner that is worthy of Your calling, and our new standing in You. We pray that our lives will bring glory to You. Amen