The end of the Law is nothing new.  Moses saw it coming.  Remember earlier I described the Law and the Prophets as God’s Sacred Space Maintainer?

In today’s passage, Romans 10:1-13, Christ is the end of the law, not because He did away with the concept of being law-abiding.  No, He is the end of the law because He filled that space perfectly and now—in Him and only in Him—we can too.

How do we get in line with what Jesus is doing?  Moses told us in Deuteronomy 30:1-20.  It’s all about loving and obeying God.

Deuteronomy 30: 14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. (NIV)

All people fall short of complete obedience, but there’s good news!  We can get in the boat.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

In Him is the end of the law. 

In Him is forgiveness and life. 

In Him is the righteousness that we cannot achieve on our own. 

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Jew or Gentile, the Mosaic Law preserved what was holy. 

The Messiah lived what is holy. 

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The good news is that for Jew or Gentile, we can get in the boat.

We can be found righteous, not by the law, but by being in Him.

Romans 10:12 For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13 for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

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Give it up for Lent: Refusing to get in the boat

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For further thought:

1. Why did Moses give the Israelites the Law if it wouldn’t save them?
2. Why does Paul take so much time to reiterate that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile and the Gospel is for all?
3. Why is it important today that we realize there are not many ways to God?  What role has syncretism played in our culture?  What about political correctness and religious tolerance?  What other influences are at work against the Gospel?

Yes, I’m deliberately avoiding the theological debates associated with salvation in these devotionals.  It’s my goal at Seminary Gal to make the theological understandable and it’s better to do this in articles rather than devotionals.

Perhaps it’s best to start with the bottom line of Romans 9:19-33: God is free to do what He wants.  When we know that’s the bottom line, then Paul’s teaching technique (asking rhetorical questions) doesn’t paint God into a corner.

God is free to do what He wants, but He is not capricious, fickle, malicious, or arbitrary.  God is not mean, hateful, or unjust.

He has a plan which involves people, and He’s sticking with it.

Paul rejects our thinking we can hold God accountable for our actions.  We are not puppets on the Father’s hand, doing His bidding. 

Rather, there is a dynamic tension (like a rope anchored on both sides of a valley).  If only one side is anchored, then the rope is for rappelling not used for tightrope walking.

Who created?  God did.

Who is able to move me and is therefore, responsible for my actions? God is and yet I am.  Tension: God has His responsibilities (which He fulfilled in Jesus Christ) and yet, I’m responsible for what I do with what Jesus did.

So, read what Paul says in Romans 9: 30-33

 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the ‘stumbling stone.’ 33 As it is written: ‘See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’”

God’s plan was that the Gospel was for both Jews and Gentiles.  The Gospel is a matter of faith and something only God could purpose but we are responsible for trusting in Him.  Whether Jew or Gentile, Jesus is the rock of our salvation.  By faith we climb upon the solid rock of salvation, but for those who want to do it themselves, He is the rock that blocks the way.

Just as when the spies went into the Promised Land, Joshua and Caleb trusted God and He was their rock of salvation.  The other ten spies trusted only themselves and their works. God blocked their way and they died in the wilderness.

The path to the Promised Land involved dealing with the rock–either by faith in what God does,

or by rejecting Him.

For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)

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Give it up for Lent: Do-it-yourself salvation

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For further study:

1. Throughout the recent Scriptures, Paul is showing us that there is a faithful remnant from within the national Jewish group.  These are the faithful spiritual Jews.  Read Numbers 13-14, the story of the spies sent into the Promised Land, and meditate on the role of faith.
2. In the passage from Numbers (above) why do you think that God stresses that those adults who saw His glory but rebelled would not enter the Promised Land? How does this show God’s freedom to let some of the Israelites die for their unbelief?
3.  Yet, in Numbers 14:31, God says that the children of those who were unfaithful would still have opportunity to enter the Promised Land.  How does this demonstrate God’s grace?

We have a dog named Harley.  Oftentimes, he’ll walk right in front of me, looking back for cues, and try to anticipate where I’m going.  It’s annoying since he doesn’t know what I’m doing or where I’m headed. 

How can he possibly lead the way? 

I wonder if God gets frustrated with us like that.  We try to anticipate God’s movement when God alone knows the plan.

Yesterday, we saw Paul’s broken heart for Israel and today in Romans 9:9-18, he continues a theme reiterating that the Gospel—in order to be Good News—must be so for both Jew and Gentile.  It’s been God’s plan all along.

Jew and Gentile: we’re on equal ground as sinners, in our need for salvation, and in our inability to earn it, barter for it, or deserve it.

Now Paul expands that thought by showing we cannot anticipate God.  God chose (in Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) the Jewish heritage for bringing the Messiah.  Being Jewish was important for fulfilling Scripture, but that’s where it ends. Gentiles were being brought into the Kingdom, but the Jews needed the Gospel too.

• Salvation is not about lineage—Ishmael teaches us that.
• It’s not about priority rights of birth order—Esau teaches us that.
• It’s not about any works we can do or even faith we ourselves try to muster.  Rebecca’s twins demonstrate that it is God’s purpose alone that is important for salvation history.

Twins have the same mother and the same father—the exact same lineage—but they were not born at the same time.  There was a birth order.  Now, consider this: the Messiah couldn’t come from two men’s lineages.  So God chose one.  Rather than have us watching all the firstborns anticipating Messianic potential like it’s the NFL draft, God chose to bring His Messiah in His way, upending the whole birth order idea saying,

The older will serve the younger.” (Romans 9:12)

Traditions of men establish priority of the firstborn.  God says that it’s not that simple or formulaic.  We don’t know where He is going, so we should let Him lead.  In bringing our Messiah in an unexpected way, God demonstrated His power, His plan, His grace, His mercy, and He alone knows where He’s going in the sovereign sweep of history.

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Give it up for Lent: Trying to anticipate what God will do

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 For further study:

1. Joseph was Jacob’s (Israel’s) favorite son (Genesis 37:3), but he is not in the lineage of Christ.  Judah, Israel’s firstborn, is.  How does this apply to how God works?
2. Read the genealogy and birth narrative of Jesus from Matthew 1.  Identify God’s unpredictable ways.
3. Pray about ways in which you’re trying to predict where God is going and lead Him there.  Repent of that and trust God to lead you.

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all– how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died– more than that, who was raised to life– is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:31-39, NIV)

Recently, I traveled on a domestic flight out of Chicago O’Hare airport.  With “the sequester” in progress in the US, we thought we’d be standing in long lines for airport security.  Surprisingly, there was hardly any wait at all.

Of course there was the usual process: identification check, ticket check, shoes off, computer out, no belt, no metal, no weapons, quart-sized zippered plastic bag of miniscule amounts of liquids, gels, etc., and the inevitable luggage x-ray.  Then there’s the full body scanner and a possible pat down…all in the name of security.

Yes, it’s inconvenient, and a lot to go through, but it’s nice having a sense of security.

Even so, when we got to our destination, we heard news reports of the failures of the safety protocol and people getting through airport security with bombs in their pants.  Good grief, I don’t even want to think about what comes next for the law-abiding among us.

I was thinking about security because today’s passage (Romans 8:31-39  also above) talks about it.  You see, we’re all under a death sentence because of sin.  We’re not faced with mere terrorism—humanity is faced with total annihilation.

And yet, we can have security from this enemy.  It doesn’t require quart sized bags and scanners.

Our greatest security measure is nothing less than God Himself.

Look at the laundry list of enemies in the verses above!

Yet God’s security measure is His love shown to us in Jesus Christ. 

He took our sins. 

He conquered death. 

In Him, we have the same victory.  Now that’s security!

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Give it up for Lent: Fear that something will separate you from God

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For further study:

1. In 65 verses of the Bible (in the NIV translation), it reads “Do not be afraid.”  Why do you think God takes such pains to remind us…indeed He commands us…not to fear? 
2. What does fear suggest about our view of God’s security?
3. Read 1 Peter 3:8-22.  Does freedom from fear equal freedom from persecution or trouble?  What does Jesus say about that in John 16:33?

What can you have but never hold?  

What can you possess while it is invisible, but once you see it, it’s gone?

It sounds like a riddle, but it’s hope.

The hope of salvation is something we can possess but we do not see it, except by faith.  Hope sustains us between our first believing until we possess it fully.  Paul tells us that we do not hope for what we already hold in our hands.  Once hope has been realized, it’s no longer hope.

Hope is the hidden faith bridge between possession and realization.

Likewise, our passage today (Romans 8:24-30) teaches that the Holy Spirit provides a similar kind of sustaining power of the unseen.  We cannot see the Holy Spirit, but He testifies to our salvation and He is powerfully at work on our behalf behind the scenes. He bridges for us between saving faith and final redemption.

Romans 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified (NIV).

We try to pray and the Holy Spirit takes the believers’ prayers and prays for us in accordance with God’s will.  It’s reassuring to know that when God’s will isn’t exactly clear to me, yet I can pray the will of God because the Holy Spirit is the sustaining power of the unseen, hard at work, all the time on behalf of believers!

I’d prefer to finish with that encouraging word, but in good conscience, I cannot leave this passage of Scripture without pointing out that theologians try to use verses 28-30 to force the visible upon the unseen on two theological points.  They try to take what we clearly have and try to make it something we can hold.  I will address the issues of (1) God’s working things for good and (2) the idea of predestination in a separate article.  They’re important topics even if they generate far more heat than light in theological discussions.

We can be encouraged that sometimes things can simply remain a mystery and stay hidden to our eyes.  Mystery is a beautiful thing because when we force the visible upon the unseen, we lose something valuable.  We lose hope and the sustaining power of the unseen.

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Give it up for Lent: My need to resolve all mysteries

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For further study:

1. Take a moment to ponder the unseen.  Rainbows’ ends, gravity, wind, love, hope…why do you think people desire to hold onto what is unseen?  Why are we tempted to harness it?  What are we doing when we harness something?
2. Why might humans want to quantify salvation?  What would we gain if we know who is saved and who isn’t?  What would we lose?
3. Read John 3:1-18.  How does this apply to the idea of the unseen?  Is it unseen to Jesus if it is to our eyes?  What is required of us if Jesus can see it and we cannot?

OK, I’ll admit it: I struggle with “the environmentalist movement.” On one hand, I try to be a good steward of the environment, have been a frugal consumer and was a cautious recycler long before it was fashionable. I am a trained horticulturist and have a deep and abiding love of nature. On the other hand, I don’t want to lead people to believe that we can “save the planet.” Heck, we can’t even save ourselves!

Creation got the bad end of the deal, frankly. Adam and Eve were made rulers over and then boom! Sin. Fall. Mortality. Decay.  You take a nice little planet and put it under the control of generations of sinners and the motto stands true: Life stinks and then you die. Poor planet Earth!

In today’s passage Romans 8:18-23, we see that mortality didn’t just happen for mankind where the planet will endure for eternity and only men will come and go. Nope! The whole planet is struggling under the weight of death. Earth is groaning—it too is unable to be liberated until Jesus returns.

We’re all stuck in the middle zone of the “already” but “not yet” of salvation history. Act 2 has come and gone– our Redeemer Jesus came, lived, DIED, and conquered death. We await Act 3 when Jesus returns with a new heaven and a new earth and there will be no more death (Revelation 21:4) and the old order of mortality is gone forever!

This is where “the environmentalists” have it wrong. There is no human way around mortality.

I love the Chicago Botanic Garden, but sadly, they’re wrong in saying, “Plant Science Will Save the Planet.” No, it won’t. The planet persists in a state of groaning and struggle until the glorious freedom of redemption. Freedom from death. Freedom from decay. Freedom from abuse. Freedom from pollution. Freedom from sin’s self-interests reigning poorly over a sad, abused, and subjected creation. When mankind is finally liberated beyond the Great White Throne of Judgment; when death and Hades are destroyed, only then will creation, too, be liberated from the same specter of death that has haunted mankind since the curse upon the ground.

Jesus’ return will save the planet. Until that time, we’re all in the throes of groaning pains.

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Give it up for Lent: Belief that sinful human stewards can save the planet

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For further study:

1. Read Jonah 4:11. What does God think about creatures? Do they have value in His eyes?
2. Read Genesis 1, noting the blessings and goodness of what God created.
3. Read Job chapters 38-41 and meditate on the majesty of God’s creation and His investment in it.

The Holy Spirit is, in my view, the best kept secret of evangelical Christianity. Whether it’s out of our fear of being perceived as too charismatic, or that He goes by the name Holy Ghost and this seems remarkably unscientific, or maybe just that we can’t see the spiritual, we treat the Holy Spirit like the member of the Trinity who truly embarrasses us. Not me! I love the Holy Spirit and today’s passage (Romans 8:12-17) outlines why.

The Holy Spirit leads us from slavery to sonship, from the uncertainty surrounding death to the assurance of eternal life, and from fearful outcasts to adopted children of God, heirs of eternal blessings as part of God’s family!

How many of us long for relationship that is stable and reliable! How many of us wish for the security of true love that never leaves, to feel safe, or to feel like we are part of a truly loving family! The Holy Spirit’s indwelling believers testifies to all of this.

He leads us by His presence from slavery to sin and from fighting the impossible fight to keep the law. Then, He leads us through conviction, repentance, and faith to His dwelling in our hearts as a guarantee that we are, in fact, God’s children. He brings the law to life in us rather than keeping us as outcasts afraid of the impossible standard and the death our failures to meet it entail.

Do you have the Holy Spirit? How do you respond to the way He leads you from slavery, fear, and uncertainty to the assurance of sonship, hope, and eternity in the glorious presence of God the Father?

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Give it up for Lent: Contentment with slavery when you can have sonship

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For further study:

1. Read 2 Cor 1:21-22 and Ephesians 1:13-14.What kind of assurance does the Holy Spirit give us?
2. What is the Holy Spirit’s role in leading us? Read John 16: 7-15.
3. Read John 1: 12 “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God– 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” What does this passage say about adoption into the family of God?
4. How does the Holy Spirit testify that Jesus was the Son of God and that believers have hope of sonship?

Condemnation is not anything we want to experience.   The word conveys judgment and we’re on the wrong end of it.  We’d rather be found not guilty, but the truth is that each of us is guilty before God.  We’re guilty so long as we’re standing there as our own defense team with our life’s works as Exhibits A-Z.

Paul has just finished his great exposition of why the law—while good—was insufficient to save us and why sin is too much for humans to conquer on our own.  If this is where redemption history ended, we’d all be hell-bound.  We’d all face condemnation—and rightly so—because we aren’t able to save ourselves.

Here’s the dilemma that God faced: all humans bear God’s Image, and yet do all sorts of things with it that make for human sin.  For God to condemn sin would mean condemning His Image stamped on every human being, consigning it to hell.

What was God’s solution?  Jesus.

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.   And so he condemned sin in sinful man,  in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4, NIV)

Because of our inherited sin nature, we cannot keep the law no matter how good it is at circumscribing holiness.  We are the limiting factor.

So God sent His Perfect Image (His Son Jesus).  Jesus is not a created being and therefore He is not just an Image bearer, but the perfect one.  Jesus lived a perfect life, always doing what God would do with His Image. Jesus did this as the fullness of God, yet in human likeness.

As an unlimited being, Jesus (the Son of God) carried (as the Son of Man) the sin of all mankind to the Cross.  God resolved the dilemma by fully condemning sin, punishing it with ubiquity (because Jesus is uniquely unlimited and lived perfectly).

2 Corinthians 5: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. … 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Jesus became sin to be punished because He had none of His own.  He was our sin offering as our passage for today  (Romans 8:1-11) says.

It really is remarkable (although, I suppose not surprising) how perfect His resolution to the dilemma was. 

• God punished sin (demonstrating His perfect justice).
• God brought us back into relationship with Him (demonstrating His mercy).
• God showed us what His Image looks like (demonstrating His holiness, wisdom, and compassion).
• God acted in every way loving toward us, His Image bearers (demonstrating His love).

Justice Served.  Love Triumphs.

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Give it up for Lent: Denying the power of Christ’s deity

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For further study:

1. Romans 8:1-11 contains a number of blessings for the Christian.  See how many you can identify.
2. In what ways do we limit Christ and treat Him as a mere man?
3. Could Jesus have paid it all and been a sin offering if He was not also God?  Think about all the ramifications of Jesus’ being fully God.

“I’m facing an uphill battle,” I said. He replied, “All battles are uphill. Downhill, it’s called a slide, a cake-walk, inevitable, or gravity.”

He was a WWII vet and I think he knew what he was talking about. It’s also a good picture of what today’s Scriptures (Romans 7:13-25) are saying.

I personally find today’s Scriptures among the most encouraging passages in the whole Bible. For those of us who fight perfectionism at every turn and who desire to live impeccable lives, we hate the inevitable slide or gravity pulling us down from our desire to do what is right. Paul knew what it was like and had that same “Aaargh!” sentiment that many of us feel when we fall short of our desires. It’s a relief that I’m not alone in my struggle to fight the uphill battle and the frustration at failures that come with it.

If I died with Christ and am born again to live a life of holiness, then why is it so hard?  There’s a war going on until we go home to Jesus or He returns to us. The warring factions, ironically, are both me!

On the spiritual side, this is the person I want to be, and the opposing side is sinful person I am by nature. Like gravity, the sinful nature constantly pulls me downhill. It’s easy to slip, to slide, to take the cake-walk rather than the hard road. Unchecked, I inevitably careen toward chaos.

For Paul, as a Jew, as for us today, the uphill battle to live a righteous life still leads to defeat. Yes, it’s hard work to fight the uphill battle. And for those of us who try and fail again and again, it could be cause for despair. This would remain the case if Act 1 of redemption history (the giving of the law) was all we had; if the sacred space was simply cordoned off as No Trespassing so that we were prevented from accessing it.

Romans 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God– through Jesus Christ our Lord!

But it’s good to know that we have someone who has rescued us from this body of death: Jesus. He fought the uphill battle and won the decisive victory over sin and death. For those of us who try, but fail time and again, Jesus reassures us that–for Jew and Gentile—He died once for all of us. We can know that our fighting the uphill battle is worth it, and He offers forgiveness for the times we fail. That’s good news indeed!

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Give it up for Lent: Despair at surrendering to our sinful selves

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For further study:

1. To what extent was it even more frustrating for the Jews who had been given the Law?

2. Do you ever picture yourself as walking around in a body of death? How might it change your view of the condition of humanity and the promise of eternal life?

3. How does the picture of slavery to sin and slavery to God’s law leave the Jew with a “Catch-22” (they have been given the Law, but cannot keep it)? What is the way out for Jews and Gentiles alike? Give thanks to God that Jesus rescues us from impossible, uphill battles.