Many years ago, I did a Bible study of Romans that was good, but left me with the sense that in order to understand this "premier document of Christian theology" (Peterson), it required law-like dissection. Reading these chapters this morning was entirely different. It is life-giving. I am overwhelmed with the beauty, the simplicity, the extravagance of God's gift to me. It's not just that I get to live, but that I've been given life.
Out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. (5:2)
...our lives will expand and deepen by means of his resurection life! Now that we have actually received this amazing friendship with God... (5:10-11)
The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed waas this wonderful life sentence. (5:16)
...can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? (5:17)
...more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! (5:18)
But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace....Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life - a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. (5:20-21)
...we entered into the new country of grace - a new life in a new land! (6:2)
Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life - no longer at sin's every beck and call! ...we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. (6:6-11)
Sin can't tell you how to live... You're living in the freedom of God. (6:14)
But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! (6:18)
And how much different is it now as you live in God's freedom, your lives healed and expansive in holiness? (6:19)
A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! ...But God's gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. (6:23)
[Jesus] set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (7:25)
God, this is the life You called me to and gave to me. I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with the enormity of it and overwhelmed that I don't often live fully in it. Thank You that this whole life is always available to me, that sin cannot tell me how to live it, and that there is more and more of this life on the way through living in Your Son.
1 comment:
I had the same response to these chapters! I'm surprised at how fresh they feel to me. Totally blown away by what God has done for me. I don't have to earn a thing. In fact, I can't!
Recently, I heard someone say how good we are at identifying our sin but how weak we are at understanding and living in the good news of what Jesus has done for us. It's been dawning on me the truth of that statement in my life. I see my sin and I wrestle instead of basking in the grace, forgiveness, and freedom that Christ purchased for me.
I haven't been grasping with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-things-right that the one man Jesus Christ provided. (5:17)
I so want to do that!
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