Romans 11:25-32

his is a warning to us whenever we think we have got God's plans all worked out. God's ways are higher than ours, and His thoughts are greater than ours (Isaiah 55:8), and this applies to His dealings with Israel. We must be very wary if ever we regard ourselves as superior to Israel.

It is true that Israel has been hardened, but only in part, and only for a time. The final result will be that Israel will be saved. God's plans, as stated in the Old Testament, are that the saviour will come from Zion (ie Jesus), and that Israel will be cleansed of sin (Isaiah 59:20,21; 27:9). God repeatedly proclaimed this in the Old Testament, and He has not changed His mind.

In Paul's time the Jews could be violent enemies of the Church, this is what He means when he says they are enemies as far as the gospel is concerned. But they are still part of God's eternal plan. God cannot and will not revoke the promises He has made.

It is true that they have been given over to disobedience, but so were we. We did not deserve to be saved, but we were. Israel does not deserve to be saved, but it will be. For the gospel is all about God's mercy. This is how He deals with us, and how He deals with others.

Romans 11:13-24

Paul wanted at least some of the Jews to see the blessing that the Gentiles were receiving, and so turn to Christ themselves. Again Paul tells them how wonderful things will be when the Jews eventually turn to Christ. The term "resurrection of the dead" could be a reference to the end times, or just an expression of the joy there will be when Israel returns.

Verse 16 spells out an important theological point. The first fruits and the roots refer to Israel. We are the rest, and we will only be complete when Israel has turned to Christ. This leads Paul into warning the Gentiles not to be proud, we must not adopt a superior attitude towards Israel, considering ourselves in some way better than them. The workings of God with man began with the nation of Israel, then they spread to the rest of the world. Israel was rejected for a time because of unbelief, the same could happen to us. It is so easy for us to become complacent.

If we continue in faith, we will continue in God's kindness. If we become unbelieving then we will not. Conversely, as soon as Israel does believe she will receive all the benefits of God's kindness.

The key lessons of all of this are:

• Do not be proud or arrogant
• Israel's salvation is an essential part of all of us being complete

Romans 11:11,12

Did the Jews reject Christ? Yes. Is this the end of the story for them, the end of their special relationship with God? In no way. If we say that Israel no longer has a special place in God's plans we are ignoring what the Bible says. Paul is completely realistic about Israel. Yes, they did reject the Messiah, moreover this was not a one-off aberration, but rebelling against God was a deeply ingrained habit. Yet they are still uppermost in God's plans. Even the gospel going to the Gentiles is part of God's plan to make Israel realise how much she is missing.

We should rejoice in this. For if Israel's rejection of God brought blessing to us with the gospel being spread throughout the world, things will get even better when Israel eventually responds to God as a nation. Imagine the joy in God's heart when Israel eventually repents and puts its faith in Christ (Zech 12:10-14; Luke 15:7).

There is a general lesson we can glean from all this as well. It is always in our interests for someone else to be blessed. The religious leaders in Jesus' day were offended when He blessed "sinners". After Pentecost the Jews were offended that the gospel went to the Gentiles. We can be jealous or offended when God blesses other people. Instead we should rejoice when others are blessed (Romans 12:15).

Romans 11:1-10

On the whole, the Israelites rejected Christ and so rejected God, but this does not mean that God rejected them. We must base our assessments on what God does, not on what man does. Man never has the last word, only God has the last word.

Paul shows that God has not rejected His people in a number of ways. First, Paul himself was an Israelite par excellence, and the apostle to the Gentiles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't you think that God was amazingly wise in choosing Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles?!

Then he turns to the example of Elijah. Elijah was a great prophet of God and won a great victory on Mount Carmel. Yet when Jezebel turned on him he ran in fear and felt like giving up. He complained to God that he was the only one left. God's answer was that he was not the only one left, for there were at least 7000. In Paul's day there were a significant number of Jewish believers, as there are today. The remnant is chosen by grace.

It is by grace we are saved. No one merits salvation. The surprising thing is not that some are not saved, but that anyone at all is saved. We are so prone to look at things in a man-centred and works oriented way. We need to look at everything in a God-centred way and a grace oriented manner. It has always been the case that there are many who will not believe.

Romans 10:14-21

Paul now explains why the gospel has to be preached to the world. If the gospel is good news to the world, then the world needs to believe it, in order to believe it hear it they need to hear it. If they are to hear it someone needs to tell them, and if someone needs to tell them that person needs to be sent.

This is very relevant to us today, The mindset today is that religions should not seek to convert people of other faiths. In some countries it is even illegal to do so, in the UK it is frowned upon, but if the gospel is good news to the world, then the world needs to hear. We have an inbuilt reaction and fear against "doing evangelism", but note that Paul says the messenger needs to be sent. "Doing evangelism" should not become another "law", if it does it leads only to fruitlessness and harm. As with everything else, we need to follow the Spirit. Then things are different, and we will know what it means for the feet of those who bring good news to be beautiful. Things can be different from our misconceptions of what evangelism is all about.

The fact that not all the Jews would accept the gospel, even that most would not, was foreseen by God (Isaiah 53:1). The problem was not that they did not hear, but that they refused to believe. For Jesus went throughout Judea, He sent His disciples throughout Samaria. When Paul went to cities he went to synagogues and the Jews first (Acts18:4, 28:17). The stubbornness of the Jews was foreseen throughout the Old Testament. Moreover, God has a plan to deal with this. He will make them jealous by pouring blessings on the Gentile believers.

Romans 10;20 (quoting Isaiah 65:1) is a great verse. God was found by those who did not look for Him or ask for Him. Even though our world which seems to have so little interest in God we should not lose hope, for God loves a challenge and is in the business of springing surprises.

Romans 10:5-13

Getting right with God by the law depends on doing the right things. Why does Paul quote the Old Testament by saying that faith does not say "who will ascend into heaven" or "descend into the deep"? Righteousness by law depends upon us being something we are not. By nature we do not do the right things. The Law tells us what to do, but does nothing about our sinful heart and mind.

Faith does say "the word is near you, it is in your mouth and in your heart". The gospel, righteousness by faith, does change us. This is the new and better covenant (Jeremiah 33). Jesus came so we could be born again, become a new creation. We become different, so it becomes natural for us to do the right thing. The gospel does do something about changing us.

We believe in our heart. We trust God, and so we are counted as right before God. We confess with our mouth, ie we publicly identify with Christ. When we identify with Christ, he identifies with us (Matthew 10:32,33).

A key point of all that Paul is saying in Romans is that in terms of salvation there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles. All who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. Jesus is the Lord, and He will bless all who believe in Him.

For most of us the distinction between Jews and Gentiles is not a "live issue", but the universality of the gospel (not universalism, in case anyone is worried!) is vital. First, it means that you and I are saved by faith, we need have no doubt. Secondly, anyone else, no matter who they are or what they have done, can also be saved by faith. We can sometimes despair when we look at ourselves, or at others. Instead we should look both at ourselves and at others with faith, considering the difference that Christ can made.

Romans 10:1-4

Paul stresses again (see 9:2) his love for the Israelites and his desire to see them saved. He has no doubt that they are zealous for God, but this zeal is not based on Godly knowledge, they are not doing things according to God's ways (ie according to faith).

They did not know the righteousness of God that comes by faith, so they sought to establish their own. When men do not know God's ways they will always seek to establish their own, then they will claim that their way is God's way. In so doing men put themselves and their ideas as superior to God's ideas.

Christ is the culmination of the Law. The Greek word for culmination can mean either "termination, end point", or "fulfilment". Here it is best to take it as fulfilment. Christ obeyed the law perfectly, the only person ever to do so. He offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice, and so bought redemption for us all. So there can now be righteousness for everyone who believes.

The Jews objected to the fact that hey had to believe in order to be righteous, and to the fact that the Gentiles were righteous because they did believe.

Romans 9:30-32

Having read the rest of Chapter 9 it is easy to think that Paul is saying it is all down to God's choice, but that is not what he is saying. Or at least he is not saying that God's sovereign choice is the be all and end all of the matter. For now he talks about the way that Israel pursued the goal.

The Gentiles did not pursue righteousness, yet they found it. The Israelites did pursue it, and with great zeal amongst the religious leaders (Pharisees & Saducees), but they did not find it. The pursuit of righteousness was not the problem, the problem lay with the way that they pursued it. They did so by works, not by faith.

Paul quotes from Isaiah 8:14 and 28:16. Jesus is the foundation stone, but the effect He has on a person can either to be the rock of salvation, or a rock that the person stumbles upon.

Paul will go on to develop this in Chapter 10, but for the time being we can apply the lesson more generally. We may well have the right goals, even the right motives as well, but unless we pursue them by faith we will get nowhere. We need to make sure that we are pursuing God's goals by faith.

Romans 9:19-29

In the light of what Paul has just said someone might say that it is all up to God, therefore we do not have any responsibility. The first point of Paul's answer is that clay does not have the right to complain to the potter. The potter has the perfect right to do what he likes with the clay. The fundamental point of man's rebellion against God is denying God the right to be God, insisting that we have the right to be God. We need to recognise who we are and who God is.

We also assume that when it says "he hardens whom He wants to harden" (Rom 9:18) that absolves the man being hardened of all responsibility. But in Romans 1:18-32 Paul talks of God giving men over to their sinful desires and depraved minds because they had rejected the knowledge of God in the first place. Man sinned first, then God gave them over to a hard heart.

So the situation is not that we do not have responsibility, but rather it is like this. All have sinned (Rom 3:23), and to some God hows mercy. The whole point of what Paul is saying is that salvation is entirely a result of God's mercy. Ancestry or tradition (ie being a Jew) do not give the right to salvation. Paul backs this up with several quotes from the Old Testament prophets. No one deserves to be saved, but God is full of mercy and saves all sorts of people, showing no regard for who we think should and should not be saved.

We need to be careful that we do not share in the attitude that the religious leaders of Israel had. For we are all prone to putting people into categories of those who deserver to be saved and those who do not. If we look at the life of Jesus we see that He constantly caused offence by the people He showed mercy to (prostitutes, tax collectors etc).

Romans 9:10-18

Paul now moves on to Isaac and Rebekah's children. As with Isaac and Ishmael things were far from normal. Rebekah was going to have twins, Jacob (later called Israel) and Esau (from whom the Edomites came). Before they were born God told Rebekah that the "older would serve the younger" (Genesis 25:34). This was contrary to the social structures of the time. Moreover it was before either of them had had chance to do anything. Paul's purpose is to demonstrate that God's purpose is sovereign, it is superior to everything else. "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated" is perhaps best interpreted as "Jacob I accepted, but Esau I rejected".

Our natural reaction to this is that it is all rather unfair, and indeed Paul anticipates this very reaction. Paul counters this objection by quoting God's word to Moses (Genesis 33:19), "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and compasion on whom I will have compassion". This doesn't seem to help us much, and Paul then goes on to make things worse (at least to our Western mindsets), by declaring that God raised up Pharoah and hardened Pharoah's heart for the very purpose of having a fight with him!

Paul is doing all this to demonstrate that it has always been the case that we are dependent upon God's mercy. not our effort, nor even our desire.

We find all this very hard to take, for it offends our normal way of thinking. As we read more of Romans 9-11 we may become a little wiser, bit here are two thoughts to bear in mind:

1. The sovereignty of God does NOT mean that it does not matter what we do or think. You only have to read the Bible to see that that is not the case!
2. God is sovereign, and His wisdom is far greater than ours.

Whatever you do, do not reject something that God says just because you cannot understand it. Part of true wisdom is to recognise the limits of your own wisdom. As it says in Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

The only reason you belong to God is because He chose you (John 15:16). There may be times when you cannot make sense of your life and what is happening, but you can always be certain of God's choice, and your future depends on God's mercy, not your wisdom and goodness. I would rather rely on God's mercy than my strength.

Romans 9:6-9

Superficially it could look as though God had failed. He had given many promises to Israel, yet they had repeatedly rejected God. Worst of all, when God sent His own Son it was the religious establishment who were primarily responsible for crucifying Him. Moreover, after Pentecost when the gospel started to spread the Jews, on the whole, rejected it. Paul argues that God's word had not indeed failed.

The first step in his argument is that physical descent is not the key issue. Merely being a physical descendant of Abraham is not enough. Jesus said the same thing (John 8:39,40). Paul then refers to the fact that it is through Isaac that Abraham's descendants are reckoned. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was the result of a human attempt to fulfil God's plan (Genesis 16), while Isaac was the result of God's promise. Paul talks a lot more about this in Galatians 4:21-31. So right from the start it is God's promise that counts, not human effort. God's plans are fulfilled in God's way and in God's time.

This can seem a little arcane to us, we can wonder what practical relevance does it have to my life? Well, we are all live under the promise of God. At times it can seem as if we are getting nowhere, as happened to Abraham and Sarah (Gen 16). In these times we can be tempted to try and speed things up, to try and force things to happen. If we do so it will lead only to trouble. God will fulfil His promises, and we need to listen to the Spirit, and to do things His way, even if sometimes this means waiting patiently.

One final thought. Abraham and Sarah were not patient and did get it wrong. This did lead to all sorts of trouble. Yet God still fulfilled His promise. We have all got things wrong at times in our life, and this may have had serious consequences, but this does not mean that God's plans for our life will not be fulfilled. Whatever situation we are in today, today is the day to trust God, to obey Him, and to follow His leading.

Romans 9:1-5

In chapters 9-11 Paul changes tack quite a bit, considering in some depth the relationship of Israel to the gospel and their long term place in God's plans. There are two extreme views on the place of Israel sometimes taken by some people: one seems to assume that Israel can do no wrong; the other that Israel no longer has a special place in God's plans. Paul takes a remarkably balanced view, and if we want to know the place of Israel in God's plans these three chapters are crucial. They are also useful correcting wrong thinking. Furthermore, they can help us appreciate our place in God's plan as well.

Note first the deep emotion stirred in Paul. This was not a matter of mere academic interest to Paul, he cared deeply about Israel. In fact it is a feature of many of the prophets in the Old Testament that they cared deeply about the people they were prophesying to, even when they had harsh words to say to Israel. They were not dispassionate observers.

Israel undoubtedly is special. For God revealed His glory amongst them, He gave the great promises to them, He gave the Law to them. So many of the heroes of the Bible came from Israel, and most telling of all, in human terms, Jesus was a Jew. So it just will not do to say that Israel does not matter any more.

Romans 8:35-39

We can be totally confident in the love that God has for us. In the previous few verses Paul has dealt with things that fear might stop God loving us, saying, in short, that there is nothing that can. Now he turns to events that might takes us away from God's love. Again, the answer is that nothing can separate us from His love. Note that the promise is not that we will never encounter difficult times. Indeed, Paul faced trouble most of the time!

No matter what we face we can be absolutely sure that it will not separate us from the love of God, whether these be physical, emotional or spiritual attacks and dangers. In fact in all these things we will be more than conquerors. What does this mean? It means that we will not just come through the trials and survive them, but we will actually come through them stronger than when we went in. We will be more Christlike than when we started. There will be more of God's glory in our lives.

Note that the grounds for this confidence is the certainty of God's love for us. We need to spend time dwelling on the fact that God loves us. In every circumstance we should ask,"how much more of God's love am I going to see in this?", and we should be looking for the victory, not expecting defeat.

Romans 8:31-34

The long and the short of all this is that we cannot be defeated. Paul goes through a series of "attacks", showing how each one is answered in Christ.

Most fundamental of all is that God is for us. This is the most basic thing we need to know, that God truly loves us. If you look in the Old Testament Israel fell many times because she did not believe that God would actually defend her, that they could not trust God. So instead they turned to idol worship, or to forging alliances with evil nations. If God is for us it does not matter who or what is against us, for God is greater.

God has shown the extent of His love by sending Jesus to die on the cross for us. God has already shown that He is prepared to give up His most precious possession for us, so we can be sure that He is prepared to do whatever is necessary for us.

People may condemn us, but they have no grounds to stand on at all. For Christ has already justified us. Any charge laid against us has to be put against Christ's death on the cross. This is no contest. Moreover, God raised Christ from the dead, demonstrating beyond all doubt that the price for our sins had been paid in full. Christ's death on the cross fully effective.

Romans 8:28-30

n all things God works for the good of those who love Him. Whatever the circumstances, we can be confident that God is working in the midst of them for our good. This does not mean that all things that happen are necessarily good, but even in the worst of situations God will work for our good. This includes the very situation you are in right now.

Paul then goes on to limit this promise to "those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose", and then starts talking about predestination. On hearing the word predestination we have a tendency to either switch off, or to start worrying about "have I been predestined", "am I included". This is not the way that Paul intended us to read it. He does not write about predestination so that people can have a nice (or not so nice) theological argument, nor to put doubt and fear into people. Rather he writes about it to encourage us.

What Paul is saying, is that God has called us. He didn't do this on a whim, but it is His eternal purpose, always was, and always will be. And He chose us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. So we can be sure that God will work in every circumstance to make us more like Jesus.

When we are in difficult circumstances our natural reaction is to cry to God to get us out of the circumstances. Often we would be better to ask "what changes are you making in me in the circumstances?" "How are you using these circumstances to make me more like your Son?". This not a matter of being passive, for it says in Philippians 2:12,13 that we are to work out our own salvation because God is at work in us. Whatever situation we find ourselves in we should ask ourselves how can I show love to someone, how can I serve someone, how can I do God's will in this situation.

Circumstances are temporary, but God's purpose is eternal and is not changed because the circumstances change. This applies both to His general purpose for our lives (eg loving God, loving others, doing good) and His specific purpose for our lives (eg a particular calling on your life).

Romans 8:26,27

"In the same way, the Spirit helps us ...". In the same way as what? Since Paul goes on to refer to the Spirit groaning, it presumably means that just as we groan, the Spirit groans within us.

There is a longing within us for something more, but often we do not know how to express this, or what to pray for. We just know we need something, and often pretty desperately! In these situations we can be confident that the Holy Spirit is interceding for us.

Now we know that God searches our hearts, He also knows the mind of the Spirit. So God also hears, and understands, the groans of the Spirit. And since the Spirit is the Spirit of God we can be confident that He intercedes in accordance with the will of God. So we might not know what to pray for, but we know that the Spirit is praying for exactly what we need. For the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, and He knows what is in our hearts and minds.

In fact whatever the circumstances we can be sure of at least two prayers being offered on our behalf. Christ is at the right-hand of God interceding for us (Rom 8:34), defending us from all condemnation, and the Spirit is praying for the perfect thing that we need.

Romans 8:23-25

Having looked at the cosmic perspective, Paul comes back to us as individuals. For we too groan with expectation. A key feature of the Christian life is expectation of something better. The nature of the gospel is that we receive a foretaste of eternal blessings now, but we will only receive the full blessing when Christ returns. If the gospel does not make a difference to our lives now, then something is wrong. But something is equally wrong if we are not looking forward to future blessings (1 Cor 15:19).

In 1 Cor 13 Paul said that these three remain, faith, hope and love. We tend to focus on faith and love, but neglect hope. The Holy Spirit places a hope within us, and this is a hope for something that we do not yet have. Moreover, this hope leads to patience. In the world, when someone wants something they tend to be impatient, "I want it now!". In Christ hope produces patience. For unlike in the world, this hope is certain. We can be absolutely sure that one day we will be with Christ forever, we will be transformed to be like Him, every tear will have been wiped away, we will see God face to face. We become impatient when we doubt that we will actually get something, or think we might miss the opportunity. We have no need to be like this with God, His reward is sure.

Part of what we need to do in times of trial is to look forward to the certain, future, reward that we have in Christ.

Romans 8:19-22

Next we get a cosmic perspective. The whole of creation is waiting for "the children of God to be revealed". What does it mean when it talks about the "children of God being revealed"? It means the fulness of God's character, His blessing and His transforming work being revealed in us. Creation is waiting for God's people to be all that God intended us to be.

Why is this? When man sinned, the whole of creation was subjected to frustration. Genesis 3:17-19 speak of God's judgement on creation because of our sin. God did this in full expectation of one day creation being set free, and brought into freedom and glory. This will happen only when God's people are all they are meant to be. Creation is waiting for us to get right with God.

Does all this have any practical significance? Yes.

• When we are going through trials we tend to think it is "all about me", and we feel alone and that we do not really matter. This is not true. The whole of creation is waiting for the glory of God to be revealed in us, and God wants His glory to be revealed in us. God wants us to overcome in the struggles we are encountering, it is His intention and desire that we overcome, and He is determined to help us so that we do overcome (the rest of the chapterwill expand on this point).
• It illustrates a general principle. Our natural reaction is to want circumstances to change. God's plan is that first we change, then the circumstances will follow. I have found this to be true on numerous occasions in my own life.
• On a more global level, the best thing man can do for the environment is to obey God.
  

Romans 8:18

The rest of Romans 8 is really telling us how to cope with difficult times. All the stuff in the earlier chapters about righteousness through faith is vitally relevant though. For one of things that happens when we go through trials is that our weaknesses are exposed, we are made brutally aware of our shortcomings, and there is a tremendous tendency to feel guilty. Sometimes the guilt is justified in a sense, for sometimes we are partly or largely responsible for the mess we get into. But even when we are not responsible we still find it very easy to feel guilty.

This guilt (whether justified or not) and awareness of our weakness can paralyse us into inaction, but Christ has become our righteousness. He is the one who has paid the price, and we are to live by the Spirit and by faith, not out of our own merits or strength. So no matter why we are going through a trial, we can approach the matter with hope because of what Jesus has done.

The first thing that Paul says is to give us an eternal perspective. The sufferings may be great, but compared to the future glory they are as nothing. There will come a day when every tear is wiped away, every illness healed, every wound healed (Rev 21:4). Moreover, God's glory will be revealed in us. Through His work in our lives in the midst of the sufferings His character will be formed in our lives.

Rom 8:17

In verse 17 Paul lays the foundation for the rest of the chapter. He declares that if we are sons, then we are also co-heirs with Christ, but then goes on to talk about sharing in His sufferings and in His glory.

Sharing in His glory is not just about what happens when we go to heaven. Part of what the glory of God means is His excellent character. Paul said in Rom 3:23 that all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. We all fall short of God's excellent character. In Rom 5:2 he says we rejoice in the hope of glory. In Chapters 7 and 8 he has been contrasting seeking to serve God in the new way of the Spirit or by law (Rom 7:2). The promise of the Gospel is that we will become like Christ, and although we only fully see this after Christ returns, we can experience the first fruits of this now.

However, we need to understand that God uses sufferings in order to achieve this (Acts 14:22). In the rest of Chapter 8 Paul talks about the future glory and the difficulties and trials we encounter in life. The trials are not just something to go through or endure, but are the refining process that helps to achieve true glory in our lives.

Romans 8:14-16

We now come to a key distinction between living in the Spirit and living out of the flesh. Those who live by the Spirit are children of God. Those who seek to please God by law, by their own strength, never know this joy. John Wesley, the great 18th Century evangelist described the key change in his life as being one of going from having the faith of a servant to having the faith of a son.

Think about it. When we seek to live out of our own strength we never find that God is close or intimate, but when we trust in Him and depend upon Him we experience something of His fatherhood. When we live by our own strength we always have the fear of failure, the fear of not being able to live up to a standard. But in Christ we have the security of being a child of God.

The Holy Spirit testifies within us that we are God's children, and causes us to cry out "Abba, father". There is one instance in the gospels when Jesus used this term to call to His Father, and it was when He was in Gethsemane, praying in agony before going to the cross (Mark 14:36). You see Jesus was not told to go the cross and then left to get on with it, it was not a duty. The Father and the Son were in it together. At the time of greatest crisis Jesus did not have to topretend about how He was feeling, but could open up His heart to His Father. In the same way, we are in it together with God. He does not give us a load of instructions and then leave us to it, instead He wants and expects us to be totally open with Him. Then we will receive the help that we need. The way of serving in the Spirit is totally different from serving in the flesh.

Romans 8:12-13

We have an obligation, but not to live according to the flesh. This can be taken in two ways, both of which are fruitful:

1. We do not have to do what the flesh tells us to do. Our flesh makes demands upon us, like a spoilt child, demanding that it get what it wants. We are not obliged to do what it says. Our flesh can demand that we lose our temper or give in to resentment. It tells us that we absolutely have to worry about something. The truth is that we do not actually have to give in to it. In fact if we resits the demands of the flesh they will eventually subside and go away.
2. Another way of looking at what Paul says is this. He is presenting living by the Spirit as the antithesis of living by law, of seeking to be righteous by our own efforts. We know that we should be good, and this is right, but then our natural reaction is to seek to be good by our own strength. We can even feel that we are obliged to do this, feeling guilty if we do not. I.e. we feel a moral obligation to seek to do the right thing by our own strength and effort.

The truth is that the obligation we have is to live by the Spirit. For if we live by the flesh we will die. This is true whichever of the two alternatives above you take. If we keep giving in to the demands of the flesh, then it leads only to death. Similarly, if we seek to be right out of our own strength this will inevitably result in failure.

Instead we are to put to death the "misdeeds of the body" by the Spirit. The misdeeds of the body are any actions, thoughts, attitudes that are contrary to God's will. This includes overtly sinful stuff like lust, lying, and things like living in fear or anxiety.

How do we put these "misdeeds" to death by the Spirit? We listen to God and do what He says. Let me give you an example. All of us are prone to anxiety at some points in our lives, some more than others. The anxiety demands that we pay attention to it. But Jesus tells us that we do not need to worry (Matt 6:25-34). In Philippians 4:6-7 Paul tells not to worry about anything. That "anything" includes the vary thing we are tempted to worry about right now. When we are tempted to worry we should instead spend the time praying for something more useful. Do not pray about the thing you are worrying about, but pray for your family, your church leaders, your neighbours, your city or nation. At first you might not feel much different, but over time (might be days, or even weeks) you will find that as Phil 4:7 says, God is guarding your heart and mind, and you are not worrying anymore. Likewise, if we feel angry against someone, pray for God to bless them, pray for their good, for Jesus tells us to love everyone, even our enemies. At first we may find that we have to do this through gritted teeth, not feeling very loving at all. Again, over time we will find that we start to change. For through the Spirit we are putting the misdeeds of the body to death. When we do that we will live a far richer life.

Romans 8:9-11

Paul has just described the hopeless situation of those who live by the flesh, out of their own resources. Now he turns to those who live by the Spirit, and says a number of things about us:

• First, we are not controlled by the flesh. This a part of the fruit of the Spirit, part of the gift of the good news. The good news is not just that we are forgiven. In fact if forgiveness was all that God gave us then life would be hell, and so would heaven! Imagine living for eternity still unable to overcome the struggles we have, unable to overcome sin, unable to overcome fear. But God has given us forgiveness and a new life. The good news is that in Christ we are forgiven and through the Spirit we are able to be different, to be overcomers.
• It is nonsense to talk about being a Christian and not having the Spirit of God. Becoming a Christian is not a merely a matter of giving intellectual or emotional assent, it is about being born again (John 3:3). The Bible knows nothing of someone belonging to Christ and not having the Spirit.
  
• If Christ is in us, then the though our body is dead because of sin, our spirit is alive because of righteousness. We all know our bodies are decaying (the older you get, the more aware you become of this!), but because of righteousness our spirits are alive. What does this last bit mean? It means that because Christ died for us on the cross God could send the Holy Spirit to give life to our spirits. In John 16:7 Jesus said that it was better that he went away, so then He could send the Holy Spirit. If Jesus had not paid the price for our sins then the Holy Spirit could not live within us, for God cannot dwell with unrighteousness.
  
• Through the Holy Spirit, God will give life to our mortal bodies. This means that He will make a difference to our lives now. We will never be perfect until Christ returns, but most certainly will experience changes in our lives in this life. We will find God enabling us to overcome things that defeated us for years, to experience Him giving us a new heart and a new mind.

When we follow Jesus there will be times of suffering, time when He takes us through difficult circumstances, but these will be far outweighed by joy when we experience the new life He gives to us in ever increasing measure. Praise the Lord.

Romans 8:5-8

Now we come to one of the passages where the importance of understanding what Paul means by flesh ("sinful nature" in NIV etc) is vital.

Paul says that there are two ways of living. We can live according to the flesh and have our minds set on what that the flesh desires, or we can have our minds set on what the Spirit desires. If our mind is controlled by the flesh then it is death, but if our mind is controlled by the Spirit, then it is life and peace. If our mind is controlled by the flesh then we are hostile to God, do not and cannot submit to His law, cannot please God.

Now Paul is not merely saying that if we desire sinful things and let sinful desires rule our lives we cannot please God, true though this is. For the flesh, or our human nature, has desires other than overtly sinful ones. Our human nature does not like being vulnerable, we do not like being rejected, we do not like having to depend totally on God, we do not like suffering. Many of these things are not necessarily sinful in themselves, but if we let these things rule our lives then we will not and cannot live a life that is pleasing to God. For if we are led by the Spirit then there will be times when we are rejected, when we are vulnerable, when we have to depend totally on God, when we will suffer. To see that this is so just consider the life of Jesus, all these things happened to Him.

If we let the desire to avoid being vulnerable dictate our life, then we will fail to follow God. This is an example of having our mind set on the flesh. Moreover, a mind is then death, for it results in a life dominated by fear, a life that is not free, for we are always trying to avoid being hurt.

If we seek to follow God out of our own strength then we will not just fail, we will end up doing the exact opposite. For at some point our flesh, our human nature, will rise up and stop us doing what God wants.

One of the roots of man's rebellion is saying that we can live life on our own without God. Sometimes we even fool ourselves in to thinking we can live up to God's standards without God's help. All this is destined for disaster.

So living out of our own strength and resources, even with the best of intentions, is a recipe for disaster. In the next section we will start to discover an alternative.

Romans 8:1-4

Without the cross there would always be the problem of punishment. No matter how well we managed to live now, there would be the problem of what we had done in the past. Moreover, one failure and that would be it. But in Christ there is now no condemnation.

The Greek word used for condemnation here means more "punishment following sentence" than just "condemnation". Chapter 7 has described a life where the desire to be good leads only to condemnation because of perpetual failure. In Christ we can be free of this. If we live by law (seeking to attain a standard by our own efforts) we are subject to sin and death. Ie we will sin, and we will fail. In Christ things can be different, we can be different, our life can be different.

Law was powerless to make this happen. Although it set out wonderful guidelines and rules, it was doomed to failure because of our sin. So God sent His Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh". Ie Jesus was fully human, and he was fully subject to the same temptations that we are subject to (Heb 2:18, 4:15). Yes Jesus was without sin, so He was a perfect sin offering, and the full price of sin was paid for on the cross. The full price of your guilt and my guilt was paid for on the cross.

"So that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us who live not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit". What does this mean? There are two ways in which the righteous requirements of the law are met in us who live by the Spirit":

1. The price of sin has been fully paid.
2. It is possible for us to live a life that is pleasing to God. Now we will never be perfect this side of eternity, but it is possible for us to live a life of freedom and fruitfulness.

If continue to live by the flesh (by human effort) then neither of these two things can be true. For we are depending upon our own efforts to justify ourselves, which we can never do, and will be subject to the failings described in Chapter 7.

Romans 8 : Flesh & Spirit

Before starting to look at Chapter 8 there are two things I must say.

The first is that if Romans is the greatest book in the Bible, then Chapter 8 is the high point of Romans. I have read it many times and one thing I am absolutely sure of is that my understanding of it only scratches the surface. I am convinced that any man or woman who gets a full grasp of what Paul is saying will really fly with God.

The second is a "bee in my bonnet", and this over the use of the term "sinful nature" found in translations such as NIV and NLT (both of which I use frequently). They use this phrase to translate the word "flesh", which is used by older versions such as King James, RSV, NASB.

I believe that "sinful nature" gives a false (or at best an incomplete) impression of what Paul is saying. When we read this term we (or at least I do) tend to think of overtly sinful things, like murder, lust, hatred, lying etc, but when Paul speaks of the flesh he means much more than this. The Good News Bible makes a far better job of translating the term when it uses "human nature" to translate "flesh". To Paul, living by the flesh does not just mean doing overtly sinful things, but includes all living out of our own strength (which will in fact eventually lead to overtly sinful actions, even if we set out with the best of intentions).

Anyway, now I've got that off my chest I'll move on to the text itself. Hopefully the importance of the difference between flesh and spirit will come out in my comments.

Romans 7:14-25

The fundamental problem is not the lack of a good set of rules or instructions. The problem is that we are unspiritual, slaves to sin. The problem is not one of not having the right rules, but of having the wrong heart.

We live in confusion because we want to do what is right, but end up doing the exact opposite. Sin is in control and sin lives in us.

Saying that it is sin living in us that causes us to be like this in no way absolves us of responsibility. Rather it is like someone who takes drugs and ends up being addicted. Once they are addicted the addiction takes on a life of its own in the person, but the person is still responsible for being in that state.

The fundamental problem that needs to be dealt with is sin, and it is a twofold problem. On the one hand there is the problem of punishment that we all deserve, and on the other there is the problem of how then can we manage to live a Godly life. On the cross Christ paid the price for us all, dealing with the first problem. By sending the Holy Spirit to dwell in us He dealt with the second one, and in Chapter 8 Paul talks about living by the Spirit.

We were in an absolute mess, but as Paul says in 7:25, "Thanks be to God who has delivered us though our Lord Jesus Christ".

Romans 7:7-13

There is much debate about whether or not Paul is describing his pre or post Christian experience. The answer may well be both. None of us live purely by the Spirit, there are always times when we slip back into living by the flesh, living by law. It always ends in failure, and the key point that Paul is making in Chapter 7 is that living by law is doomed to failure.

The problem is not the law, the problem is sin. The Law is perfect, telling us what is right and what is wrong. Paul uses the example of coveting, presumably an area where he struggled. The law said it was wrong, so sin seized the opportunity to do wrong.

Sin lives in our human nature, in our flesh and takes the opportunity to do wrong. Sin can only live when it knows what is right and what is wrong. We have a natural tendency to do wrong, and sin produces death.

Because of sin, law brings death. The law is truly good, but living by law (seeking to do good by our own strength) always results in failure. Law shows up sin for what it is.

Romans 7:1-6

Chapter 6 has dealt with the arguments that effectively see sin as desirable. In Chapter 7 we move to a different issue. OK, sin is bad, we want to live rightly, do we not then need law? The essence of Paul's argument is that law is good, but we are bad, and sin has control of our lives. Sin is the fundamental problem that needs to be dealt with, and law is powerless to do this.

If someone wants to live right, then the natural way to do this is the principle of law. Ie get of rules and instructions and how to live, then obey the rules and follow the instructions. Simple isn't it? But it doesn't work. The rest of chapter 7 deals with the "doesn't work aspect", but first Paul deals with a deeper issue.

It is so deeply ingrained in us that "obeying the rules" is the way to live right, that he needs to address this issue. In Paul's time the Jews were particularly wedded to this way of thinking with the Law, but it applies to many of us as well.

Paul says that we do not need to live this way (and will later say that it is in fact futile to do so). He uses the analogy of marriage. While a person is married a person is bound by obligations and committments relating to marriage, but when the person's spouse dies those obligations no longer apply.

Likewise, we died to the law through Christ's death on the cross. We now belong to Christ, who was raised from the dead, and the purpose is that we bear fruit for God.

Before we came to believe were under law. Ie we would be judged on whether or not we had obeyed the rules. But then we were under the control of our flesh, and this led to sin and death.

Now we are free from the law. This does not mean we are free from the need to do right, but we are free from the principle of law. The rules were not wrong. It has always been wrong to murder, lie, etc and always will be. But we are free from the principle of seeking to do right by following a set of rules. The objective remains the same, the means of achieving that objective has changed. As Paul says, we are to serve in the new way of the Spirit not the old way of law.

It is impossible to stress too much how alien this thought is to our human nature. In the rest of Chapter 7 Paul will show that in fact the law principle is doomed to failure, then in Chapter 8 he will describe the new way of living by the Spirit.

Romans 6:15-23

Does being under grace mean we can sin? No way. Again there is a mistaken conception today that sin=fun. Nothing could be further from thr truth. When we sin far from exercising freedom we become slaves to sin. The choice we have is to be either a slave to sin or a slave to righteousness. As Bob Dylan put it, everyone has to serve somebody.

Through the cross we have been set free from slavery to sin. It would be madness to go back to that slavery. When we become slaves to righteousness we actually discover true righteousness.

Being a slave to sin does not improve our lives, for sin results only in death. When we become slaves to God the reward is eternal life. There really isn't any choice, death or life.

Romans 6:1-14

Romans is Paul's greatest letter. In the first few chapters he argues that we are saved by grace through faith. This raises the question of does it then matter if we sin. This is a question still posed by many people, who think that Christianity effectively says that it does not matter if we sin for God will simply forgive us. Nothing could be further from the truth as chapters 6-8 emphatically show.

The gospel is not an excuse to sin. When we come to belive on Christ we die to sin. We belived in Christ and were baptised so that we could live a new life. The gospel is not about "being let off", but of getting and living a new life.