The Epicness of Romans

So I started reading the book of Romans this summer. Since I can't remember the exact time let's just say it was around July-ish. So for about 5 months I have been in and out of Romans, trying to soak up everything that Paul was writing. The reason I started reading Romans was because I was in this state of mind that I couldn't get out of. Without going into detail it was keeping me in this place where I was repeating patterns of behavior because I didn't feel worthy and didn't have the right frame of mind when I approached God.

As I announced that I finally finished reading it I was asked, "So what did you learn?" and I couldn't answer that. First off it's so general, and second there was WAY too much that I did learn. I will break down my findings in Romans under this general concept: My identity is not in what I do or who I am with, my identity solely relies in the fact that I am a daughter of God. This is the state of mind I need to operate in.

I love the way Paul communicates because he does not dance around the issues. He is very straightforward in his address to the Church of Rome. And although he is frank, he is very compassionate and understanding. He knows exactly their state and is spot on with their responses to the movement of God. There is a necessity to correct the behavior of our fellow brothers and sisters BUT considering that Paul does NOT dwell on the issues (he merely addresses them) we should not either. Present it with the truth, point them toward the heart of God and then follow it with love. This requires operating from a completely different mindset....

Mindset is a huge theme within Romans and I love it because I am a logical thinker. The biggest thing that got me is the church as a whole loves this verse "Their women exchanged natural relationships for unnatural ones..." and it goes on to mention homosexual acts between men. So what the church likes to do is point the finger at the sin of homosexuality and denounce homosexuals. This is a simple example of Paul addressing the issue of sexual impurity AS A RESULT of exchanging the truth of God for a lie. In this exchange, they were turned over to a depraved mind, which is a very dangerous place to be.

I also love that Paul points out such things but his immediate response is to turn his brothers toward the truth and remind them that God is the only righteous judge. We have no right to judge each other because according to Paul we do the very same things we are judging. Our response to sin should be outweighed by our response to the person, and our response should always be drenched in love.

"Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." 5:1-2 Jesus has paid a price for us to have complete access to the grace of God. We do not have to work for it, pay for it, beg for it in order to receive it. We are FREELY justified... Crazy...

Another mindset that Paul talks about is being dead to sin. This is a big one for me because this is the very thing I was struggling with before diving into Romans. I had the mindset of "I have to defeat this sin." I was operating from a state of mind where I needed to be sin-free in order to present myself to God, or to be worthy of his presence. This is completely false. We have been united with Christ in his death, where our bodies died to sin so we would no longer be slaves of sin. So in Christ's resurrection we are united with him in his defeat of sin and participate in a new life. We DO NOT have to be slaves to sin, aka we DO NOT have to only approach God when we haven't sinned. We can take the invitation to walk with Christ in LIFE. So what did this do for me? Made me realize that I was seeing myself through the eyes of my sin, which was clouding my identity and making me feel unworthy of love and grace. What a downer!

Romans goes on then to mention more mindsets and being transformed into the likeness of Christ so we can live beyond the issues of sin and religion. Paul instructs in the movement of Love and what that should look like and he ends Romans very well by saying that the kingdom of God is not a matter of disputable things (like I go to church on Sunday and you go on Saturday) but rather it is a matter of righteousness, peace and joy. He encourages the shifting of your focus away from those things that cause people to stumble to a place where righteousness, peace and joy reign. It never hurts to end with hope, and that is exactly what Paul does. In spite of our human nature, the all-powerful, unknowable God has been made ever clear and knowable by his son Jesus who we are co-heirs with in his kingdom.

So it all comes down to identity. Who do you believe you are? Who do you think God believes you are? If we can come to a place where we can stand in the grace God has freely given us, look through the lens of love at the people around us and rightfully take our places as sons and daughters, we WILL change nations.

This, in short, is what I learned. It's still sinking in.

The Issue about Faith

I now have two blogs. One I hardly write in and when I do I think I am going to start a new series and it turns out I only write one blog about that topic. So it ended up being a collection of rather random things. So I have decided to start another blog with the hopes that I can narrow down what is written here.

Monday, November 29, 2010

So I am part of a group that meets on Monday nights (conveniently called Monday Nights) and the topic of Faith came up. I feel it is rather cliche to have Faith as the topic of discussion amongst Christians. It is not only expected but very much over played. Anyhow, the topic came up. My friend Jared had some awesome things to say about Faith because it wasn't just left as a feather-weight topic. So on this I expand.

Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you can not see." Interesting. I think we have a misconception of what faith is.

This guy I know, he sometimes goes by Jesus, showed me a thing or two about Faith. He showed me this conversation between a scientist and a christian. They were arguing about the famous creation vs evolution issue. At the close of the argument the scientist is just at this place where he doesn't understand how the christian can believe in creationism without any evidence and then the christian responds with "well, you just have to have faith." Another example is the interaction between two christians where one has a doubt issue and the other just answers him with "well, you just have to have faith."

"Just have Faith" is the Christian slogan used way too much, like Nike's "Just Do It". All the issues are covered and answered with that one line. Did Jonah really get eaten by a fish? Don't know, just have faith. Was Jesus really God? Don't know, just have faith. Is there really such a thing called salvation? Don't know, just have faith. Did Jesus really walk on water? Did he really heal a man born blind? Did the disciples really raise people from the dead? Don't know, just have faith.

Bologna.

How can it be that faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see but yet it is the answer for all those things that we just aren't quite sure about? It just doesn't compute. Jesus gave me some insight on this.

Faith is not a response to a question you don't know the answer to. We need to shift our understanding of faith in a direction that coincides with being sure and certain of those things unseen. If we are to live as Christians we need to live with this new faith, not the faith that just blows off the things that are hard to answer. It is time to usher one another into a deeper understanding of what we do not know to coincide with the God we do know. The goal then is to come out with the mind of Christ, that understands kingdom matters and kingdom faith. We then can operate from this state, where our lives become the response to Faith.

Until the next conversation...