The word condemnation carries a terrible weight. Formally, it means to declare someone guilty of a specific crime. As a judge hands down his sentence, he might sternly shout to the defendant, “You are condemned for the murder of your neighbor!” When he does that, he is declaring the criminal’s guilt to the world.  He is also declaring the finality of his punishment.  The condemnation publicizes the criminal’s guilt, but it also serves to fill his ears with the certainty of wh

The writer of Hebrews tells us unequivocally that it is impossible  to please God without faith ( Hebrews 11:6 ). Paul tells us unequivocally in Romans 8:8  that those who are in the flesh cannot  please God. While these two statements are addressing different things, they are also inseparable. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that we must  trust God in order to please him – and he gives us the reason for why that is so.  He essentially tells us in the second part of th

Jesus loved his disciple Mary.  He also loved her sister, Martha, and their brother Lazarus ( John 11:5 ).  What existed between them was not a cold, academic relationship dominated by a sole regimen of discipleship. Instead, it was also a friendship. And when Lazarus died, Jesus wept ( John 11:32-35 ). It's a curious behavior on the part of the Lord – to weep – since he was able to raise Lazarus up from the dead ( John 11:43-44 ). That curious emotional behavior challenges o

All good theology is practical – even the theology that isn’t immediately intuitive.  That is because all good theology has real world consequences.  Sometimes it might take a bit of effort to understand how theology and your practical world intersect, but very often this connection is obvious.  One such place where it is fairly obvious is at the beginning of Romans 8 , where Paul spells out the practical consequences of his theology on the Law of the Spirit of Life, and the

A good working definition for “law” is that it is a set of binding rules or regulations that govern a person or a people, and that are enforced by a controlling authority.  For instance, your county has a law that regulates just how many feet your septic tank can be from your water source. The government then enforces that law with a system of courts, inspectors, and police who can extract money, time, or other precious elements from your life if you breach those laws. Your s

When unbelievers are asked to define the word, “repent,” they will usually say that it means to feel sorry for something you’ve done and to express remorse or sadness. This definition has some truth to it, yet still falls woefully short.  You can feel sad about something that has happened as a result of a decision you’ve made, while also not thinking that your decision was particularly wrong. Thus, you might engage in the same wrong behavior again if you can enjoy that behavi

Paul ends Roman 6  with a stark reminder to his readers that when they were slaves to sin, they weren’t getting any good fruit from doing those things for which they felt shame once they were united with Christ. He unabashedly tells them that such slavery didn’t just produce bad fruit, but that it actually led to death – a point of truth he reinforces when he writes to the Galatians ( Galatians 5:16-21 ). He then contrasted being a slave of sin with being a “slave” of God. He

Pay close attention to the way Paul describes sin in Romans 6 .  He says we should not allow sin to reign  over our mortal bodies. Paul argues that to do so means that we will no longer obey our own passions as followers of Christ, but instead will obey sin’s passions  ( Vs. 12 ). Notice how Paul personifies the idea of sin by using a grammatically possessive phrasing – almost as if sin is a living being with the ability to rule, having passions it wishes to impose upon other

Paul frequently assaults your mind with complex reasoning that even his fellow apostles sometimes found challenging to understand ( 2 Peter 3:15-16 ). But this isn’t necessarily the case in the first several verses of Romans 6 .  Yes, Paul is using complex and challenging reasoning with multiple layers of depth in that passage, but he also presents a very clear, easy-to-understand outline of what happens when someone genuinely trusts Christ for salvation.  In this section of

Themes of life and death dominate the pages of the Old and New Testaments.  Threads of these concepts, as well as wholly woven sheets of these threads, are commonplace throughout the entire bible. Unfortunately, we may not be thinking as deeply about these opposing terms as we ought. We tend to think of death as the cessation of biology. We tend to think of life as a heart beat, brain waves, and body temperature. These ways of thinking about those notions are true, but they a

You might think that the most significant evidence of the sovereignty of God is his creation of the universe.  Or perhaps you think it is that he once commanded the sun and moon to stop along their paths in the sky – and they obeyed him ( Joshua 10:12-14 )! Maybe you think it's his rescue of the people of Israel from the tyranny of Egypt ( Exodus 1-14 ). Surely, we can’t leave out his power over the waters of the Earth when he drowned the recalcitrant evils of wayward men alo

Paul argues that our faith in Christ has put us in a position of grace with God, and that because of that position of grace, we can expect to both share and rejoice in God’s glory ( Romans 5:1-2 ). Interestingly, in describing that process, he says that our rejoicing is in the hope  of that divine glory. It is very important to understand that early Christians did not use that word hope  in the same way that we do today. We might say something like, “I hope it doesn’t rain to

At the beginning of Romans 5 , Paul continues developing his intricate treatise on the justifying power of faith.  He just reminded us in Chapter 4  that Abraham wasn’t made right by any works of the law, but instead was made right by trusting God ( Romans 4:13 , Romans 4:20-22 ). Paul argues unequivocally that Abraham’s trust in the promises of God are what counted toward his righteousness. He then goes on to argue how the same principle applies to everyone who trusts God (

At the end of Romans 3 , Paul argues that there is only one God, and that he is the God of everyone regardless of whether or not a person is a circumcised Jew, or an uncircumcised Gentile ( Romans 3:27-31 ). In the development of his argument, he contends that the Jew is made right by faith, and the Gentile is made right through faith. What Paul is saying is that a person is made right by his belief in who God is, and his trust in the goodness of God rather than by his cultur

In Romans 3:9-22 , Paul makes a compelling biblical argument that no one is without sin.  In fact, not only does he assert that everyone is a sinner , but he also strongly argues that no one  can be made right with God through the Mosaic law. Those piercing statements would not have landed well with his contemporary religious elites. Those elites would have been repulsed by both the tip and the edge of that spearhead. Their pride would have been punctured and sliced in ways t

Paul begins Romans 3  on the heels of a discussion about circumcision. In his circumcision discussion he explained how Jews should not presume to be members of God’s people based solely on the fact that they have engaged in a religious and cultural ritual.  What you look like on the outside, Paul argued, doesn’t matter in the eyes of God ( 1 Samuel 16:7 ).  Rather, what matters is the state of your heart.  Being a true member of God’s people is a matter of faith, trust, alleg

When God sent the angel Gabriel with a message to Mary, who became the mother of Jesus, the first thing he did was address her as, “ O favored one. ” He told her that the Lord was with her, and then declared once again that she had found favor with God ( Luke 1:26-35 ).  Mary, understandably, had a little difficulty processing the message, so Gabriel let her have it straight.  He told her that she would bear a child who would be the Son of God, and who would have an eternal k

Paul ends Romans 2  with a strong and convincing argument that relying on outward culturally Jewish rituals to identify yourself as a child of God only serves to blaspheme his divine name among those who don’t know him when you break his law. He says that true circumcision which identifies you as part of God’s family is one that involves cutting away the sordid parts of your inner being. This “circumcision of the heart” results in new motives, new passions, a new mind, a new

The circumcision of every male child on the 8th day after his birth ranks as one of the central most important rituals in the Jewish faith. It is a ritual that is challenging to comprehend completely, and you can plumb the depths of its essence and implications for a long, long time. Even the wisest and most literate of rabbis struggle to elucidate its full meaning in ways that have intuitive value. In fact, you can ask 10 different rabbis and 10 different Christian pastors w

When God gives a person over to a reprobate mind , appalling and awful things grow in it. And while it may not be obvious at first blush, there’s a coherent, logical, and recognizable reason for why those appalling and awful things grow. Paul charts out the end result of this dreadful process for us in Romans 1:28-31 , and in the very first verse in that passage he identifies that reason. There, he says that because some people didn’t see fit to keep in their minds a respectf