This month we will be reading Romans in the New Testament. Apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans. It is considered the most complete letter on Christian theology. Scholars believe that this is because at the writing of the letter Paul had never visited Rome. Of course, from our recent reading of Acts we know that he eventually traveled there for his trial as a Roman citizen.
Now is the time to catch up if you are behind. Have a great month.
CLICK HERE FOR READING SCHEDULE
Now is the time to catch up if you are behind. Have a great month.
CLICK HERE FOR READING SCHEDULE
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What does it mean to live under grace?
Here in Romans 6, Paul presents a detailed teaching on what it means to live under grace. This is the heart of the Christian message and yet it is rarely fully understood by Christians. The closing sentence of the New Testament is a prayer that “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.” Revelation 22:21
The word for grace in Greek NT language is charis it means a favor or benefit given out of the giver’s love not because of the receiver’s performance. The verb form is charizomai, which means to show kindness or favor. Jesus’ teaching shows us that God reaches out to help the undeserving and pardons the helpless sinner (e.g. Matthew 11:28-12:13 or Luke 7:36-50).
To Paul the concept of grace is a life changing power. It changes forever our concept of people and our present and eternal destiny. Today in many cases, as in the Jesus’ physical days on earth, the message of the Old Testament was very distorted by misinterpretation of scripture. The devout Jews depended on their physical relationship with Abraham and on knowing the law for salvation. Their relationship with God was based on ritual, obedience to the letter of the law (which had gone through many interpretations) and piety. Many today have substituted their relationship to a particular denomination or adherence to a distinct doctrine for kinship with Abraham, but the error is the same.
Because of Paul’s radical conversion on the road to Damascus, he was forced to rethink his Jewish beliefs. He chose the word grace to distinguish between human attempts to get God to love us and the way a personal relationship with God is actually established and developed.
God’s grace is akin to the love good parents have toward their children. The child is valued apart for his or her actions. God values the individual so highly and personally, that he has made provision for each person’s just pardon through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Because of the cross, God can now extend his love and great favor toward us as we relate to Him. This force in God’s heart is termed by Paul as grace.
Grace is received by centering our thinking on how much God loves us, not by how short we fall of deserving His love. Try it. Begin to thank God for loving you so much. Believe He does love you no matter the current state of your circumstances. This will cause grace to flow you way. This will transform you relationship to the living God.
May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Adopted from The Expository Dictionary of Bible Words.
Why did Moses spend so much space to the detail of how to build the tabernacle?
The tabernacle was the place that God’s people would meet Him and commune with Him. In years to come Solomon would build a temple for the same purpose. When Jesus came the question was still being ask? Where and on what basis shall we meet God? (John 4:19-20… the woman at the well.) Jesus answered that the meeting place was actually in spirit (the invisible realm of the inner man where God best manifest Himself) and truth (based on a pattern defined by God in his word).
The tabernacle says to us, “It matters how and on what basis and by what INWARD patterns of beliefs and thoughts that one meets God. Without God’s insight on how to commune with our Creator then we will not see God as he really is and be hindered in our relationship with Him because of wrong belief.” If we believe something that is wrong about someone we want to relate to, it would certainly hinder the full blessing of the relationship. That is why Jesus emphasized the importance of knowing the truth.
The details of the tabernacle revealed the importance of attending to the details of God’s world.
Reading the Old Testament, I really appreciate Jesus. I could not imagine having to be that meticulous about anything. All those rules. Must have been hard. As for the tabernacle and alter that have been described in such incredible detail, could you imagine that today? Those exact specifications and material would be incredible to behold.
Acts and Romans have taught me a lot about Paul. It answered some questions I had that can translate to my brother. It specifically says that only through faith in Jesus Christ can we get to Heaven and not through our actions. I also like Romans 13:13. I never knew it said not to get drunk in the Bible.
By the way...we all need to get back the excitement we started with on here. I am very guilty.
Dear Friend
My prayer for you is that all is well and that you will soon be back blogging.
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