Category: Romans (Page 1 of 2)

Give Peace a Chance

February 26, 2026 / admin / 0 Comments

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” (James 3:17-18)

Yep. Yes. I agree. Wholeheartedly. Do it. Now. Always. Give peace a chance.

But I must also ask, “How’d that work out, James?”

James set forth what true, God-given wisdom looks like. Let us receive it for what it is—the word of God.

Let’s also ask, does that wisdom work? I guess it depends on how you define the word work.

In Acts 21 the Apostle Paul arrived in Jerusalem with an offering received from Gentile believers and designated for the poor of Judea. He walked into a tinderbox that was ready to ignite into a firestorm. The Jewish-Gentile tensions were so taut they were about to snap. And Paul was at the center of it all. Paul, it was said, taught Jews outside of Judea to forsake the law of Moses (Acts 21:21). It was a falsehood but rumors run on airtime, not actuality.

In view of the times, James counseled a scheme where Paul would go to the Temple with some Jewish men who were under an oath. The apostle would join them in the Temple, pay their expenses, and join them in making sacrifice (Acts 21:23-24a). “Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law” (v.24b). Let’s give peace a chance.

Did it work? Did it produce “a harvest of righteousness . . . sown in peace”?

No. At least not like James seemed to picture it.

On the final day of James’ scheme, a riot started in the Temple over Paul. The Jews there tried to kill him (Acts 21:27-31).

None of that discounts the truthfulness of what James taught about wisdom. It does remind us, however, of something Paul had himself recently written: “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Rom. 12:18).

Make every legitimate effort to live at peace. Yes, and amen! But living at peace takes two parties. Even if you try, it doesn’t guarantee the other party will try also.

Sometimes righteousness works itself out in less than peaceful circumstances. “The God of peace” (Rom. 15:33; 16:20; Phil. 4:9; 1 Thess. 5:23) knows how to work his righteousness with or without willing parties (Psa. 75:11). May he always find us willing, even when not all in our circle of relationships are cooperative.

Prayer and the Holy Spirit

September 5, 2019 / admin / 0 Comments

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” (Romans 8:26-27)

Recently our congregation considered the ministry of the Holy Spirit as it relates to our praying. You can join us by listening here: prayer and the Holy Spirit

Two Problems; One Solution

July 30, 2016 / admin / 0 Comments

“Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary!” (Job 31:35)

“Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24)

This morning my devotional reading juxtaposed two men, both in deep woe, but for profoundly different reasons. My Old Testament reading concluded in Job 31, which is Job’s last gasp of complaint over what appears to him to be the injustice of his sufferings. My New Testament reading included Romans 7 and 8, where we find Paul crying out in despair over his struggle with sin.

Both men are tormented and distraught; both are crying out in anguish. Job goes through a litany of seven areas of sin, showing how thoroughly he has probed his heart for any evidence of sin as he tries to find a reason that makes sense of why God would let him suffer as he does (Job 31:35-37). Paul, on the other hand, is in anguish because everywhere he turns in review of his ways he finds nothing but sin. He sees sin everywhere in himself. He is looking for someone who can save him from God’s just judgment and the power of sin.

Job sees no sin anywhere in his life, yet he suffers. Paul sees sin everywhere in his life, yet he is powerless to deal with it. Both are beyond distraught.

The answer in both cases is: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a).

Job repeatedly longed for someone to stand between him and God as a mediator (Job 11:33; 16:19-21; 19:25-26). Paul knows Jesus to be just that one, a perfect Mediator, who at the cost of His own life paid our sin penalty (Romans 8:3), whether we are able to discern those sins or not (Psa. 19:12-13). Jesus causes us to gladly cry, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (8:1). Plus, Jesus sends His very own Spirit to reside within us (8:9), to deeply and personally make real our connection and fellowship with God (8:15-17), and to produce through us all that He requires of us (8:2-4)!

In Jesus we find the one and only Mediator between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5-6), in whom we may rest as life and its hardships do not make sense. In Jesus we find the one and only sin sacrifice, in which we may rest when our sins overwhelm us. In Jesus we receive His Spirit, in whom we may rest, trusting His empowering to free us from the power of sin.

Truly we cry, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Embracing Every Friend

September 13, 2012 / admin

“Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son …” (Romans 8:29a)

Several great principles emerge from this, speaking volumes into the details of my life:

The only goal that matters ultimately is Christlikeness. (2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 4:24)
When Christlikeness is my ultimate goal I move with God, in the sweep of His power and with the confidence of eventually arriving at His designed end. (Phil. 3:21; 1 John 3:2)
If Christlikeness is my ultimate goal, then even the deepest hole and darkest night can become my friend. (Rom. 8:18; 2 Cor. 4:16-17)

The Question to End all Questioning

August 4, 2012 / admin

“Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?”

(Job 41:11a)

“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?”

(Romans 11:35)

This question is the show-stopper, the debate-ender. This question is designed to silence the objector; to leave him bowed in worship at the feet of God.

God asked this question of Job to silence him, to expose the folly of his rants, to reduce him to worship. Job’s sufferings were epic. He knew nothing of the reasons—afforded to the reader in chapters 1-3—for his pain. He had it right early on when he simply replied, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). When his wife objected, Job asked, “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (v.10b). Indeed, “In all this Job did not sin with his lips” (v.10c).

But as Job’s pain persisted his struggles provoked him to question God. His friends’ counsel prodded him further down this fatal path. After his friends’ three rounds of counsel, God finally broke his silence and began questioning the questioner. The New International Version lists 70 questions which God put to Job from chapters 38 to 41. In the midst of all those questions God dropped the show-stopper: “Who has first given to me, that I should repay him?”

Paul, good Bible student that he was, took up this divine question at the end of eleven chapters of the most intricate theological reasoning ever penned. He had spent the last three of those chapters exploring the mysteries of the electing love of the sovereign God. But the apostle had hit the wall, the wall beyond which no human inquiry can pass, no human eyes can peer, no human mind can penetrate. Having done his best to answer those who would object to God’s sovereign, electing love, Paul fell silent, threw his hands in the air in a worshipful sign of surrender before the sovereign Lord whose ways are inscrutable (Romans 11:33-36). The only thing left after this question was to pronounce the benediction (v.36).

As Paul asks another audience on another occasion: “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7).

The end of all theological discussion, all philosophical exploration, all existential ranting is found in this simple query:

Who came first, the Creator or the creature?
Who is Giver and who is receiver?
Who owes whom?

The wall beyond which we cannot press is God’s sovereign position as Creator and Sustainer of all things. The question leaves us where God intended us to be when He created us, where all His merciful and gracious provisions were design to lead us from the beginning—in worship.

All our questions answered? Goodness, no! All our greatest longings now connected to the only One who can satisfy them? Absolutely.