December 5, 2024 -- Romans 5:18-21 -- The hard truth implications of this new life in Christ

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit’s power: Sh’ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:18-21 ESV
 
Simplified now. The passage teaches the one trespass was the sin of Adam. He disobeyed God and by his sin all his descendants are sinners. The Bible is clear, all people on this earth are one race. One family. All, if they could, trace their line of decent, would go right back to Adam and Eve. Then came the love of God in Christ Jesus. His one act of righteousness was a life lived without any sin. His perfection through-out his life meant that He is the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people. All who believe in Jesus are therefore counted righteous in Him.
 
The grace of Jesus, His forgiving work is applied to every area of our lives. It is the incredibly good news of the Gospel. Sinner, you are forgiven in Christ. Now, there will be some who read this and shout: “Woo-hu! I have, like 007 a licence, not a licence to kill, but a licence to sin however I want, whenever I want, and wherever I want, and Jesus’s righteousness will be applied to me”. (In that very thinking you see how sin clouds all your judgment and shows the rot of deadness that persists in you.)
 
Sin is rebellion against God. To continue to sin is to say to God, I want all Your presents, but NOT Your presence. I can’t stand it. That means the righteousness that could be, or should be yours in Christ, really hasn’t touched your thinking, your heart and your attitude. When the Spirit of God grabs a sinner by the scruff of the neck and yanks him from death to life, snatching him as it were from the very fires of hell, that man, that woman, that child is grateful. So filled with relief and joy and hope that sin and the hatefulness and the venom of it is repugnant. It is replaced with thanksgiving. Enumerating endlessly all that good that is yours through Jesus!
 
As is written in Romans 6—we died to sin in Christ Jesus, there is no way we would ever want to go back there again. Step 6 in the Overcomers workbook states: “I am ready to let God take away all my hurts, character weaknesses, and wrongdoing.” In the previous step we submitted our life to God as He guides us. Now the one who overcomes in Jesus Christ is saying: “I trust He will begin His healing work in my life.”
 
Salvation worked into my life and my soul means that I must forgive people who were unspeakably cruel. Just as God forgave me in Christ Jesus. The measure of their sins against me never even reached my anklebone, while the least of my sins against God had me drowning in my own filth. There is no comparison at all. That is why a sinner set free in Christ turns and wants to forgive others, longs to show to others the goodness Christ has shown him.
 
This Step really gets to deep wounds. Sins committed against you. Sins you have committed. Unless the powerful Spirit of God gets in you and works out the salvation of Jesus, everything dies on the vine here. Our character weaknesses, our inclination to sin, and our pride will prevent the healing work of God from reaching us and we will pack it in and head back to the handbasket that will sail to hell.
 
Do not give up. God as been saving men and women like yourself, since the dawn of time. He knows His work. He is tender with the broken; he is patient with the penitent; He is direct with the proud crushing their ignorant pride so that they will be cleansed and made to be a fit dwelling for the Spirit of God. The Father in heaven delights to show compassion and heal people who, humanly speaking, should never, ever be able to get along. It is what I often experience in Bible Studies in prison settings. Like yesterday. The gathering of men present: such differences between each man—crimes, ages, where they’d lived, socio-economic status, education—and there they were, reading the Bible together. Praying. Trusting in God to do what humanly speaking is impossible: to share the Gospel, to grow in righteousness and work their way back to reintegration as men truly transformed by Jesus Christ.
 
Devotional Sentence: Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
 
ALMIGHTY and Most Merciful Father;
We have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep.
We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts.
We have offended against Thy holy laws.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done;
And we have done those things which we ought not to have done;
And there is no health in us.
But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders.
Spare Thou them, O God, which confess their faults.
Restore Thou them that are penitent;
According to Thy promises declared unto mankind
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And grant, O Most Merciful Father, for His sake;
That we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life,
To the glory of Thy Holy Name. Amen.
 
Confession. DIVINE SERVICE BOOK FOR THE ARMED FORCES, 1950, page 3 & 5.
 
https://youtu.be/M7670CXvPX0?si=PurgT-3wMEPKTxt- Casting Crowns “I Heard the Bells”
 

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