Romans, Chapter 6.

Romans 6 is such a rich chapter. This week as I read, and I read, and I re-read this chapter, the Lord began to impart a richness of His Word into my heart. There is so much truth, so much depth contained in this chapter that we could spend weeks studying this passage alone, looking up every word in the Greek to gain greater understanding of the message Paul wrote to the Romans.

I considered Paul and the change that occurred in him from his Damascus Road conversion and over the course of the years of his ministry, and I saw the beauty of the New Testament as we see his transition taking place. In Paul, we can see the work of Jesus in a person’s life. We see the transformation that took place. He went from being a man who persecuted Christians, to a man who traveled, spent time in prison, was beaten, shipwrecked, stoned, whipped and pressed on all sides for the sake of the Gospel.

We are first introduced to him as a man who was fervent for a cause when he witnessed Steven’s stoning. Now, here we are, reading what he wrote to the Romans some 25-30 years later. This is what a quarter of a century brings us: a man whose transparency in sharing his very own transition gives us the understanding of what it means to come out from under the Law and step into grace. For a quarter of a century, God worked in him, weeding out the legalism that came with the Law.

The Law was not meant to oppress man; it was meant to lead him to the cross. Man worked out, added to and amended the Law and ultimately brought forth a type of alienation of the common man from God as it became more ritualistic, legalistic.

We know that Jesus was without sin. When we look at his life and ministry, we see how many times He appears to step outside the Law to serve someone, heal them, or free them from the bondage they were in. This was often followed by an address to the crowd—even the Pharisees—in an effort to reveal the truth of the Law and ultimately, how the Law was given to benefit man and/or how He was sent to fulfill the Law.

Consider those He healed on the Sabbath. The parable of the Good Samaritan. The lessons that He taught those from the scriptures. The lessons His life taught to try to break off the scales, the veil that was upon the eyes of the Jews in that time so they might see that He was, in fact, the Messiah for whom they had been searching. The Law was not meant to imprison us. It was meant to be a tutor and lead us to the cross. (Galatians 4)

In Paul, we have a man who knew the Law backward and forward. He knew it because he lived it; he was trained in the Law from his youth. His persecution of Christians was because of his training in the Law. He saw those who were serving Christ as “blaspheming God” and he, a young zealot, was on a mission to rectify this situation. This is the very man who authored the book of Romans.

In Romans we learn that Paul was addressing a young church comprised of both Jews and Gentiles and confusion naturally arose. One group—the Judaizers--was attempting to bring the Gentiles under the Law, specifically regarding circumcision, to achieve true salvation. Paul strove to remind them that our salvation is by grace and grace alone. The other group took on the “saved by grace” message to the extreme.

Paul was trying to work these doctrinal errors out of this early church. He knew if they continued on this path, they would slowly but surely be brought back under the Law. Then the grace that God extended through His Son would be lost. Then, you have the other group declaring, “Wow! Saved by grace…since we are saved by grace, the more we sin, the more grace is extended to us, right?” And Paul is saying, “No, no, no, no!” When you accept Jesus (and Paul details in Romans exactly what Jesus has done), you enter into the Passion of Christ.

The Passion of Jesus needs to become part of who we are as believers. We need to strive for this, each and every day of our lives. To trivialize His immense suffering, His unbelievable sacrifice with a “once-saved-always-saved” doctrine is to separate ourselves from the scriptures. Are we not called to be like Christ? Was He not holy? Was He not submitted to God in everything He did? Even in His death on the cross, He remained submitted to God. How can we accept Him into our hearts, knowing full-well what He did for us to grant us eternal life, and continue in our sin? This is why the Church is stumbling today.

Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life though Jesus Christ our Lord.” I think that we have probably quoted this scripture dozens, even hundreds of times in our lifetimes (depending on how long we have been saved) and if you have an evangelical call on your life, it is probably more. But Paul sums up the entire sixth chapter by saying, “The wages…” (the eternal compensation of the unrighteous in keeping with their earthly deeds) “of sin…” (missing the mark; that which separates us from God) “is death” (separation from the life and salvation of God, forever).

Physical death, without first experiencing a dying to self to receive His gift of salvation, results in separation from God, forever. I am going to say that again: Death is the separation from the life, or salvation of God forever if we do not first experience death to self to receivethe gift of His salvation. This word right here has so much significance in the life of the believer. We have to first experience death to self. Paul says, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). What is he dying to? He is dying to self. He is dying to the flesh, the ways of the world, the ways that our flesh wants to take us.

If we are going to experience eternal salvation, we must first learn to die to self and our own fleshly desires. Our salvation is a gift. It comes from grace—undeserved, unmerited favor. Anyone who has an Amplified Bible knows that is what grace is: underserved, unmerited favor. We cannot work our way into heaven nor can we buy our way into heaven. Salvation is granted through grace, but we must come to a point where we quit serving our flesh and start demonstrating the transformative power of the grace that rests within each of us.

To be continued next week…

Blessings & Love,

Ricci