Romans 9:16 & 20

So, then, it doesn’t depend on human willing, or on human effort; it depends on God who shows mercy.

Are you, a mere human being, going to answer God back? “Surely the clay won’t say to the potter, ‘Why did you make me like this?'”

This is one of those chapters that, after reading, I am compelled to simply bow, no–kneel, no…lie prostrate on the ground in reverential silence, and pray, “You are God, and I am not.”

It is a good reminder to be very careful of making God in our own image, to our desired specifications.

We cannot control God, and we cannot predict everything God will do. And we cannot say, “God sent that hurricane on those people because…”

But you know what we can do?

Humbly submit in trembling reverence to God’s incomprehensible awesomeness.

This might be a good chapter to read if you’re getting too comfortable in thinking you control more outcomes than you do, or too smug in your certainty of exactly how God operates.

News Flash: None of us really know or can comprehend all of what God is doing and how He/She is working it all out in this complex mosaic of history, space, and time.

Yes, we can absolutely know God through Christ, and even take on the mind of Christ, but that still doesn’t mean we understand it all, and never puts us in the position of God!

Romans 8:3-4

For God has done what the law (being weak because of human flesh) was incapable of doing. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and as a sin-offering; and, right there’re in the flesh, he condemned sin.

This was in order that the right and proper verdict of the law could be fulfilled in us as we live not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

When Paul says that God sent Jesus to earth in the likeness of sinful flesh, he is saying that He sent Him in the closest relation to sinful humanity possible without becoming Himself sinful.

Through Jesus, God condemned sin, meaning He took away not only sin’s guilt, but its power and dominion over our lives. The law merely shows us what not to do, but does not have in itself the power to hamstring sinful tendencies within us.

When we live according to the power of the Holy Spirit, sin has no power over us, and we automatically fulfill the law’s original intention, not just by keeping the rules, but by having the heart that God originally intended for us to have.

Romans 7:14-25

I, however, am made of flesh, sold as a slave under sin’s authority.

I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want, you see, but I do what I hate.

I know, you see, that no good thing lives in me, that is, in my human flesh. For I can will the good, but I can’t perform it. For I don’t do the good thing I want to do, but I end up doing the evil thing I don’t want to do.

Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

I read Romans 7 to our daughters, Gabriela and Zayra, and asked them to reflect on what stood out to them.

Here’s what I got:

I like how he acknowledged that what he was doing was wrong, because that’s the first step toward life in Jesus, through Jesus—acknowledging that you’re wrong, that your way is wrong, and He is right.

This reminds me of the simple life advice my workout partner has given me over the years: “Acknowledge, and move on.”

Romans 6:23

The wages paid by sin, you see, are death; but God’s free gift is the life of the age to come, in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.

Whatever master you choose has consequence. And you are definitely choosing one.

Sin pays you wages, wages that suck.

God gives a gift freely which consists in Life, Life directly of the age to come. This age to come is free of sin and death and evil.

One pays you for services rendered.

The other gives to you freely, having already worked all the service required.

You can work for evil dividends, or you can accept Life graciously…and then get to work.

Romans 5:3-4

That’s not all. We also celebrate in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces patience, patience produces a well-formed character, and a character like that produces hope.

Suffering chisels off our rough edges which we have allowed to grow through our self-seeking, through going our own way.

These rough edges mar and distort the image of God in all of us, the image we were created to reflect through the purest, most intimate relationship.

That perfect image and pure relationship, which was horrendously damaged, has been restored by God, through the death of Jesus on the cross in our history. This act of cosmic reconciliation was initiated by God, and has been offered up for our grateful acceptance as well as the generous opportunity to become fully what we were always meant to be.

Do you believe this?

Will you accept this?

Are you going to act upon this, allowing God to chisel away what does not look like Him?

Romans 4:20-21

He [Abraham] didn’t waiver in unbelief when faced with God’s promise. Instead, he grew strong in faith and gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God had the power to accomplish what he had promised.

I so want this to be my default setting—to not waiver in the face of God’s promises, but rather to see every new situation (even those dark ones offering little hope) as opportunities to grow stronger in my faith in God. And this because I am convinced that since God has the power to create the universe, He has the power to accomplish anything He promises—no matter how seemingly far fetched.

Abraham was 100 years old, his wife was not exactly “Fertile Myrtle”, and God promises that he’ll be the Father of a kazillion people. Abraham focused on God’s promise, His character, and power to somehow bring it to fruition, rather than the obstacles and impossibility of it all.

Romans 3:3-4

If some of them were unfaithful to their commission, does their unfaithfulness nullify God’s faithfulness?

Certainly not! Let God be true, and every human being false!

One of my favorite stories comes toward the beginning of The Last Battle—book seven of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis. An ape and a donkey find a lion skin and get the idea to impersonate Aslan, the great Lion and Creator of Narnia. From a distance they are able to fool people into thinking the donkey is Aslan, and they command some reverence and mess some things up. Once their ruse is found out, many people disbelieve that the real Aslan even exists. The donkey cannot believe that just because he pretended to be Aslan that people would stop disbelieving that Aslan was real.

This is a great part two to yesterday’s Ripple. We looked at making sure we are practicing what we preach, not contributing to others’ turning away from faith in Christ.

Here is the other side.

Just because some people who claim to be followers of Jesus do not live up to that calling, does not mean for one second that Jesus is not real or good or powerful or love incarnate.

The unfaithfulness of humans does not nullify the faithfulness of God.

Looking to people to see God will disappoint…a LOT. It does not mean we cannot or do not see God shining through humans. We can all the time. But we must start with God as Jesus showed God to be, and not start with human behavior and then project that on to God.

I’ve often said that is about as ridiculous as saying Martin Luther King was all about violence just because a bunch of people wearing MLK t-shirts go around beating people up. That horrible display would not redefine who King was or what he stood for and did.

God is God, even if every human being turns against Him and acts contrary to His character.

Jesus shows us God perfectly. No one else.

Romans 2:17-24

Well then: if you’re going to teach someone else, aren’t you going to teach yourself? If you say people shouldn’t steal, do you steal? If you say people shouldn’t commit adultery, do you commit adultery?

This is what the Bible says: “Because of you, God’s name is blasphemed among the nations!”

I was at this church planting forum last week, and the final presenter shared that young people are leaving the evangelical faith of their parents in record numbers. One of the main reasons given is seeing so many people proclaiming faith in Christ whose day-to-day lives resemble nothing like what they profess to believe in.

When we fail to live out what we say we believe in, we not only fail to be a light for Christ, but we contribute to turning people away from Christ.

Now this is not to put undue pressure on us, for it is ultimately up to the person to seek God from their heart. But perhaps we do need some healthy pressure to be for real in what we claim. To examine ourselves to see if we really do believe what we say we believe, or even what we think we believe.

One of the many not-so-obvious sins I’ve personally witnessed as especially destructive is gossip. Incessant, unnecessary, virulent talk about others causes loathsome relational destruction. Scripture is beyond clear and plentiful with regard to this evil. It should not be present among us who believe in and follow Jesus.

Romans 1:16

I’m not ashamed of the Good News; it’s God’s power, bringing salvation to everyone who believes…

The Gospel of Jesus Christ—His death, burial, and resurrection putting us in right relationship with God, restoring us in the image of God–is nothing to be ashamed of.

It’s not some unrealistic proposition we need to defend like a nervous salesperson who is not sure their product really works.

A comparison that comes to mind for me is chiropractic care. I’ve been going to a fantastic chiropractor, Dr. Mike, for over ten years now. I know what many people think of chiropractors, the skepticism, the dismissal, even the ill thoughts and verbal proclamations against them.

But guess what. I DON’T CARE. I don’t give a single thought to what “they” say. At all.

Why? Because I not only placed faith in chiropractic care, I’ve experienced it, and my body has benefitted because of it. I can’t tell you how many injuries and what not I’ve healed from in record time due to this kind of treatment. One such example is when I had something called “frozen shoulder” in 2016. Dr. Mike proposed a 12 week plan, and I admit I was a bit skeptical because I hurt so badly and had very limited movement in my left shoulder. But I followed the plan in every detail, and healed to the point that I can’t even tell I ever had an issue with that shoulder before.

I have placed my faith in Jesus Christ, and have experienced His real presence, His ultimate reality, His inner healing. So go ahead, world, make fun, say it’s made up. I know better, and therefore, am not ashamed of what I know to be truth, and the very real person responsible for my existence who loves me to the point of dying for me to place me in good standing with the Creator of the universe.

Acts 28:30-31

And he [Paul] remained a whole two years in his own rented lodgings and received all who came to him, Proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching the things concerning Jesus the Anointed, with all boldness and without hindrance.

This is how The Acts of the Apostles ends.

I can’t say how good it has been for me to go through this work chapter by chapter these past five weeks. I’ve been greatly encouraged and picked up so very much.

To put a little bow on it, there’s just a few things to share.

The hero of this volume is the Holy Spirit, carrying out the mission of the Kingdom of God which Jesus Christ inaugurated, bringing it to more reality through all those who would believe, working the miraculous via those who open themselves up to this powerful force of God and allow it to flow through them out into the world.

This is still true today, for me and you.

The ending of Acts seems a bit abrupt, not telling us Paul’s fate, but this is the way it had to end. I leave you with more highlights from William Willimon’s commentary which has meant so much to me during this study…

We have observed the church proclaiming those mighty works despite every hindrance and every obstacle.

While in no way denying the real challenges the gospel must overcome, as well as the real suffering believers must endure, Acts is determined to encourage Theophilus by telling the positive story of the forward advance of God’s truth.

The stories of success—stories a persecuted, despondent church needs to hear—abound in Acts.

Acts must close in an open-ended fashion, with the door still open for work and witness rather than closed by death, because the Spirit is still active. Luke is not simply writing history. He writes the story of the Spirit, the Spirit incarnate in people like you and me.

Now, nearly two millennia after Luke wrote to Theophilus, Acts reminds us that despite rejection, persecutions, setbacks, and our own lethargy or cowardice the gospel proclamation continues to the very end of the earth, by God’s grace, unhindered.