Posts that reference the book of Romans

Peter’s Building Blocks: Love

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. 2 Peter 1:5-7

We’ve been through a lot of blocks
Each one challenging us,
Calling us to be more like Christ
In our actions and attitudes.

The final block is love.
The Greek is agape.
It is sacrificial love.
The 1 Corinthians 13 kind.

This love makes allowances for mistakes and weaknesses.
It is willing to face problems when they come.
It is affirming and loyal.

It is the virtue that sums up all the others (Col 3:14)
It is the goal of all Biblical instruction (1 Tim 1:5)
It is the most excellent way (1 Cor 12:31-13:13)

It is not hypocritical (Rom 12:9)
It builds up (1 Cor 8:1)
It serves others (Gal 5:13)

It is the love God showed to us.

He is Risen!

By Paula Wiseman

But [the angel] said to [the women], “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He is risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. Mark 16:6

This is an incredible moment – literally. Too extraordinary and improbable to be believed. Jesus told them. (Matthew 16:21, 17:23, 20:19). He had raised Lazarus a week or two before. But the women (and the rest of the disciples) go on, operating on their own understanding of how life works, how it has always worked. That’s about to change. Incredibly.

God graciously sends an angel to help the women understand what had happened. Let’s break down his message.

Do not be alarmed. – Our first response to drastic change and worldview shift is … stress and worry. Things are uncertain and no longer secure. But in this case, the change is the best thing ever.

You seek Jesus of Nazareth – The angel knew the mission the women were on. And they could be confident that this message was for them,

Who was crucified – He didn’t “swoon” or faint. He died. No one survived a Roman crucifixion.

He is risen! – Jesus is no longer dead. He has been raised by the power of God.

He is not here – This is a tomb, where dead people are. He is not dead, so He is not here.

See the place where they laid Him – You are not in the wrong tomb. Here’s is the place where you saw the body laid on Friday afternoon. Now the body is gone. Jesus isn’t just “spiritually” raised. He isn’t a ghost. His body has come back to life.

The Resurrection changes everything

We change from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.
The payment for all our sins has been accepted.
Every word Jesus said is true.
We are reconciled to God
We are adopted into His family.
We have an inheritance and eternal life.
And so much more …

If you don’t believe He is risen …

Then you don’t believe the gospel. Paul preached the Resurrection, and he said if anyone preached anything different from what he had preached, that was another gospel, a false gospel. (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:8-9)

Then you aren’t saved. Paul says in Romans 10:9, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” The Resurrection proves the sin debt is paid. You must believe that Jesus Christ’s death was for your sins and that He was raised, proving you are right with God.

You have no hope.

Paul walks through the logical implications if Christ is not risen from the dead.

And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up–if in fact the dead do not rise. For if the dead do not rise, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable.
1 Corinthians 15:14-19

Jesus Christ is risen, as He said. That is the theme of Acts and the Letters. It is the reason for the praise offered to Christ in the Revelation, praise He alone is worthy to receive.

Since that morning, the Resurrection has changed everyone who has believed it. The women. The disciples. Us.
We have hope. We have life, and we have a message to share.

Peter’s Building Blocks: Perseverance

By Paula Wiseman

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, 2 Peter 1:5-6

Perseverance.
Endurance.
Patience.
Steadfastness.

In hard times.
Lean times.
Times of aggravation and oppression.
Times of suffering and uncertainty.

It is hupomone.
It is looking beyond the present.
It is knowing the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed in us (Rom. 8:18).

It is resisting temptation.
Standing strong in the face of opposition or threats.
It is not backing down or slinking away.

Perseverance is clinging to God’s sovereignty and His justice.
It is following Christ’s example.

“[W]ho for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2

Bottom line: Persevere
Keep doing what you’re doing (1 Cor. 4:12).
He will give you the strength (Phil 4:13).
Don’t grow weary (Heb. 12:3).
It is worth it (1 Timothy 4:10).

Peter’s Building Blocks: Knowledge

By Paula Wiseman

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, 2 Peter 1:5

Saving faith forms the solid foundation
The next block is virtue, moral excellence
Then we add knowledge.

The Greek is gnosis.
But it’s not secret, special revelation
It’s not Gnostic.
It’s not only for an initiated, select few.

It is knowledge of divine truth.
It is having a mind filled
With the truth of Scripture.

Paul tells us to study, (2 Timothy 2:15)
To handle the Word of God accurately and confidently.
He also agrees knowledge follows virtue (Romans 15:14).

But Jesus promised we’d have help.
The Holy Spirit teaches us. (John 14:26)
And Paul modeled how we pray for each other to gain knowledge. (Colossians 1:9)
(Do we pray for that?)

Adding knowledge requires study,
Meditation,
Discernment
Application.

In a word, it requires diligence.

If we don’t give it any effort, Peter says,
We’re useless and unfruitful.
Shortsighted, to the point of blindness.
We’ve forgotten we were cleansed from our old sins. (2 Peter 1:8-9)

Paul says we have been given
“The mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16)
We have the blocks.
What will we build with them?

Sound Mind Theology: Labelling and Personalization

By Paula Wiseman

Since the Fall we have struggled not only with the content of our thoughts but the process as well. Yes, even the very way we size up situations and apply knowledge and experience to them is tainted by sin. In other words, we are constantly plagued by fallacies and cognitive distortions. So in our series on sound mind theology, we’ve touched on three interrelated distortions — minimizing, maximizing, and disqualifying. Last time we discussed the fallacies of fairness and control. Today, we’ll get personal with two cognitive distortions, labelling and personalization.

Labelling may be the most destructive distortion.

Labelling is choosing to view yourself negatively based little or no evidence. (If your brain immediately went to “but I have plenty of evidence,” you may want to reread this section once we’re done… Just saying.) For example, you forget your lunch. “I’m so stupid.” A relationship doesn’t work out. “I’m unlovable.” Someone else gets the promotion. “I’m such a failure.” We take an event and twist it into identity. But then that statement we make about ourselves is internalized and it becomes an indelible part of how we see ourselves. Labelling is extreme, catastrophic, all-or-nothing and it leads to feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. And here’s the unfortunate thing. We give far more credence to the negative messages we tell ourselves than any evidence to the contrary.

Even Biblical evidence.

The primary way labelling poisons our spiritual life is we flat-out don’t believe what God says. If we label ourselves unlovable, it does not matter how many times we read it in Scripture — like Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! (1 John 3:1) — we don’t believe God loves us. When we don’t believe what God says … when we refuse to believe what God says … that’s sinful. We need to repent and ask the Holy Spirit to drive the truth deep into our hearts. A deep look at the first half of Ephesians is a good place to start replacing the labels we’ve made with the ones God has given us.

Personalization is taking on blame that isn’t yours.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes mean negative outcomes for us. That is part of life. What happens with personalization is we extrapolate those “sometimes” to every time. We’ve mentioned before, we live in a world broken by sin, and bad things happen. When job loss is a result of a corporate decision made in an office four states away, that blame is not ours. Other times bad things happen because we are unwittingly caught in the crossfire of others’ actions. For instance, you are minding your own business when someone else runs a red light and hits you. You are not at fault.

This gets stickier when we consider how often we make ourselves responsible for someone else’s emotions — for their happiness or conversely, for their anger or sadness. Despite what we believe or are told, we all choose our emotional response. No one else is responsible for it. It is a distortion of reality to pickup that responsibility, that blame and carry it like it’s ours. It’s not your baggage. Don’t take it.

The spiritual side

There are any number of ways that this can play out in our spiritual lives, but let me give you two that can really mess us up. The first is living with a burden of guilt. Now the Holy Spirit points out sins in our lives and leads us to repent. However, when we can’t let go of the blame and guilt we feel, when we doubt God’s forgiveness or His favor, it interferes with our relationship with God. We lose the joy that comes from knowing Him. We hide from Him like Adam and Eve. We feel like God is perpetually displeased with us. On the contrary, God delights in us.

As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. Psalm 16:3

Remember “saints” refers to believers, period, and not a subset of special super pious believers. If Jesus Christ is your savior, you are a saint.

The other way personalization can mess with us is we can make ourselves responsible for the results when we share the gospel. Let me say this clearly. If someone rejects you or your words when you witness to them, you have been faithful. We are commanded to go, to sow the seed. The response is between the hearer and the Holy Spirit. The rejection doesn’t come because you couldn’t answer the question, or you forgot a verse, or you stumbled over a word.

“The one who hears you hears me, and the one who rejects you rejects me, and the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” Luke 10:16

It’s not you. Keep witnessing.

When struggling with labelling yourself or personalizing blame, perhaps start here. Paul instructed us in Romans 12:3 to look at ourselves honestly, to use sensible, good judgment to make a fair evaluation. King David invited God Himself to examine his thoughts a root out what shouldn’t be there (Psalm 139:23). Rely on the truth in God’s word and what HE says about you rather than your labels. God has called you HIS. (Isaiah 43:1-3)

Just so we’re clear, I’m not a counselor. I read, research, and study, and I have some life experience. I am not attempting to diagnose anything, but rather help us evaluate how we think based on Scripture.

All Things New: The Covenant

By Paula Wiseman

It’s a new year and our thoughts naturally tend toward making a fresh start. As believers, we have already experienced the freshest start possible. Our sins have been wiped away completely, and we are a new creation. Paul says as much in 2 Corinthians 5:17. We have a new birth, new life, new position, new nature, new goals, new relationships, a new mission, a new purpose … and many more. But the key to all of this, we learned last week, was God’s divine initiative. One of the ways that initiative was manifested was God initiating a covenant with individuals and with groups of people. And we learn about those in Hebrews.

Before we discuss the covenants themselves, it’s important to realize that they are solely a function of God’s grace. Yes, Abraham was a man of faith, but God’s decision to cut a covenant with the patriarch came before Abram exercised any faith in God. It wasn’t a case of God reviewing humanity and deciding Abram was someone He could work with, someone He wanted on His team. No. Fallen humanity never seeks God or the things of God. But God does seek us, and He graciously calls us into a relationship with Him. Abram wasn’t a party to the first covenant in Scripture but his is the first we’ll consider.

Abraham

In Hebrews 6:13-14, the writer recalls the covenant God made with Abraham in Genesis 22.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”

Even though the writer doesn’t cite the entire covenant and its promises, they were certainly in view to him and to his readers. Those promises included an inheritance of land in Canaan and a unique identity as God’s people. God chose a people for Himself, the descendants of Abraham. Later, we’ll find out just what it means to be a descendant of Abraham.

Moses

When we think of covenants, we think of the covenant God made with Israel through the Exodus. In Exodus 19 God invites the people to live as His people, under His law. While the people immediately accepted that offer, especially after seeing the miraculous deliverance from Egypt, things went south quickly.

As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses?
Hebrews 3:15-16

The covenant based on keeping God’s law was a failure because the people were rebellious. Note it was not a problem with God’s law. Paul explains in Romans 7 the law was good. It points out how high God’s standards are and how short we fall. Even if we think things would have been different if WE had been at Sinai, if WE had seen those miracles … the truth is, WE have already failed. A quick dip on social media provides enough evidence that, left to ourselves, we are in deep trouble. Better evidence is in Romans 3 where Paul plainly tells us that none of us are good, none of us seek after God.

While that first covenant had a system in place to cover our sins and delay judgment, there was no permanent way to erase our sins. That’s why God initiated a New Covenant in Christ.

The NEW Covenant

Christ Himself explained in the Upper Room that He was inaugurating a new covenant, guaranteed by His blood. The writer of Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 about the New Covenant.

For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant…”
Hebrews 8:8-9

This is how we know the New Covenant wasn’t a last-minute idea God threw together when Israel couldn’t keep the Law. HE knew we wouldn’t be able to keep the Law. We, however, had to see for ourselves. (We’re stubborn that way.) God knew all along that redemption through the blood of Christ was the only way our sins could be dealt with and satisfy both His justice and His grace.

Hebrews 9 explains (and it is absolutely worth the long quote):

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
Hebrews 9:11-15.

The blood of goats and bulls could only go so far. How much MORE will the blood of Christ Jesus Himself, freely offered, purify us! This is how we become the people of God by faith like Abraham. We believe God that Christ’s death is sufficient and is available to us. God accounts that to us and we are considered righteous.

Now that’s not the end of the story, and we don’t get to simply sit around patting ourselves on the back. Under the covenant made while Moses led the people, obedience was expected in order to enjoy the blessings of the covenant. Deuteronomy 27 describes how the Israelites lined up on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim to rehearse the curses for disobedience and the blessings for obedience.

Even under the New Covenant, believers have a responsibility. While we’ll look at the charge more next week, here’s how the writer of Hebrews lays it out.

Therefore, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,
Hebrews 10:19-24

Peter’s Building Blocks: Love

He is Risen!

The Resurrection changes everything

If you don’t believe He is risen …

Peter’s Building Blocks: Perseverance

Peter’s Building Blocks: Knowledge

Sound Mind Theology: Labelling and Personalization

Labelling may be the most destructive distortion.

Personalization is taking on blame that isn’t yours.

The spiritual side

All Things New: The Covenant

Abraham

Moses

The NEW Covenant

Encounters Series

Covenant of Trust Series

Foundations Series