Rom 6.1-14

Psg: Rom 6.1-14 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Ro6.1-14)
Date: 4/21/12

Read

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 6:2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 6:3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 6:4Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.*

6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.* 6:6 We know that* our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us,* so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 6:7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)*

6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 6:9 We know* that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die* again; death no longer has mastery over him. 6:10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 6:11 So you too consider yourselves* dead to sin, but* alive to God in Christ Jesus.

6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 6:13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments* to be used for unrighteousness,* but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments* to be used for righteousness. 6:14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Record

"The body of sin would no longer dominate us" (6)
"We would no longer be enslaved to sin" (6)
"Death no longer has mastery over us" (9)

Reflect

• We have this attitude that sin still has mastery over us. It's not true.
• It is true that everything we are and everything we do will be stained with sin and impurity.
• It is also true that we cannot achieve sinlessness.
• But sin and death do not rule over me. I don't have to sin against my will. I can always choose obedience, unlike the unsaved.
• How is this true? How do I have options that the unsaved do not when it comes to sin? Can't the unsaved choose to no murder, not lie, etc.?
• The HS is inside of us, constantly influencing us toward Christlikeness. Rom 8 is coming up!
• He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.
• The break of the power of sin and death are also positional truths. God will do his part. This passage says, "This is true about you. Therefore, don't go on with the old actions." It acknowledges that we can still sin, but it shows how incongruous and counterproductive it is.
• How do I take advantage of this?
• Believing that the HS is doing his work, look for it, yield to it out of obedience (AOT personal power to be good, which is all the unsaved have).
• It's a mortification of the personal will. I will experience more of the resurrection life the more I die to self.
• There is no resurrection without death.
• If I want to experience the goodness of the resurrection in a given area of my life, there must also be a death in that part of my life.

Respond

• Father, my will is strong. It is by no means too strong for you, but you allow this will to have its way to some extent. You have a much better life for me than this, free for the taking, through taking up my cross following your Son. You have resurrection life in abundance for me - if I would merely yield my stubborn will in complete obedience.
• Intercessory: Open X's eyes to see how much more bountiful is the resurrection life that you offer.

Eph 2.1-10

Psg: Eph 2.1-10 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Eph2.1)
Date: 4/20/12

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2:1 And although you were* dead* in your transgressions and sins, 2:2 in which* you formerly lived* according to this world’s present path,* according to the ruler of the kingdom* of the air, the ruler of* the spirit* that is now energizing* the sons of disobedience,* 2:3 among whom* all of us* also* formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath* even as the rest…*

2:4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved!* – 2:6and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 2:7 to demonstrate in the coming ages* the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward* us in Christ Jesus. 2:8 For by grace you are saved* through faith,* and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from* works, so that no one can boast.* 2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.*

Record

Living life in the cravings of our flesh (3) v. being created in Christ for good works (10).

Reflect

• As a new creation, how do I decide what to do? What to prioritize?
• How do I balance rest (even recreation) with these good works that God has created?
• How much of my whining and moaning and complaining is because the cravings of my flesh are unsatisfied? That would be a case of living for the cravings of the flesh instead of for the good works God created.
• God doesn’t leave us here on earth to sit on a shelf. I’d rather be a tool than a trophy.

Respond

• You did not create me in Christ Jesus for applause that you prepared beforehand so that I may revel in it.

2 Cor 5.16-21

Psg: 2 Cor 5.16-21 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/2Co5.16)
Date: 4/19/12

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5:16 So then from now on we acknowledge* no one from an outward human point of view.* Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view,* now we do not know him in that way any longer. 5:17 So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away* – look, what is new* has come!* 5:18 And all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us* the message of reconciliation. 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea* through us. We plead with you* on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 5:21 God* made the one who did not know sin*to be sin for us, so that in him* we would become the righteousness of God.

Record

From now on... (16)
Therefore... (20)

Reflect

• Because all things are new in Christ, from this point forward, everything is different, even the way we look at people.
• New way of living.
• New way of thinking.
• New way of seeing.
• New mission and message.
• From now on - the old stuff is gone. We don’t need to look back, we don’t need to do anything the old way, we don’t need to pay for it.
• Therefore, we have a new purpose - the message of reconciliation.
• This cannot be undone.
• How do we see each other this way? If I’m stuck looking at others (and myself) according to the flesh, how do I adopt Paull’s outlook?
• He bases it on how we know know Christ.
• He bases it on the theological reality of positional truth.
• He bases it on where the newness comes from.
• Looking at one another the old way is just plain easy.
• This includes looking at ourselves that way.
• It is perhaps even sinful to willfully look at each other this way.
• Is Paul only referring to how we see other brethren?
• In some respects, this is true whether we practice it or not. So perhaps part of our response is to adopt as a practice what God has already made true - that we do in fact know one another as members of the New Creation. Drop the old habit.

• This also applies to looking at women with lust.
• As much as I look at others according to the flesh, I inhibit the spiritual relationship I can have with them.
• Seeing people as God does carries with it a responsibility to them.
• I shy away from seeing  people this way because it becomes too burdensome to see the lost as lost.
• But then, that is trying to carry a load that doesn’t belong to me.
• Choosing to see them according to the flesh is an escape from the responsibility God has for me.
• This could even affect:
• Arguing with others - changing if I argue and what I argue about.
• Patience with and grace for others.
• Counseling.
• Intercession.
• Prayer requests - are my prayer requests based on looking at my life according to the flesh or according being a new creation?
• Mocking, poking fun.
• Reacting to the news.
• Work (not to mention coworkers).
• etc.

Respond

• Help me to look at others and at myself in the new way, in the way I know Christ. Therefore, help me to know Christ more thoroughly.
• Help me to see the lost as lost, but also to refuse to carry your load for them. Give me the right burden for them.
• Change my willingness to carry the responsibility you want me to have for others by seeing them as you see them.

Col 1.15-20

Psg: Col 1.15-20 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Col1.15)
Date: 4/13/12

Read

1:15* He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn* over all creation,*

1:16 for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions,* whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

1:17 He himself is before all things and all things are held together* in him.

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn* from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things.*

1:19 For God* was pleased to have all his*fullness dwell* in the Son*

1:20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him,* whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Record

All things are held together in him.

Reflect

• LN: 63.6 συνίστημιc or συνιστάνω: to bring together or hold together something in its proper or appropriate place or relationship—‘to hold together.’ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν ‘in him all things hold together’Col 1:17. In Col 1:17 it may not be easy to indicate clearly the relationship of the phrase ‘in him’ to the rest of the expression, namely, ‘all things hold together.’ Some translations have expanded the expression ‘in him’ to ‘in union with him’ or ‘in view of the fact that we are joined together with him.’ It is also possible to understand ἐν αὐτῷ as indicating agent, so that this expression in Col 1:17may mean ‘by means of him all things hold together.’

• NET: 31 tn BDAG 973 s.v. συνίστημι B.3 suggests “continue, endure, exist, hold together” here.
• The universe is not a wound-up watch or a complex Rube-Goldberg machine. It is continually held together “in Christ.”
• LN asks the question about what “in Christ” means here. What does it mean?
• By his action?
• Because of him?
• By his existence?
• By his incarnation and/or salvific work in particular?
• WBC: He is the sustainer of the universe and the unifying principle of its life. Apart from hiscontinuous sustaining activity (note the perfect tenseσυνέστηκεν) all would disintegrate.
• All the great things that scientists discover, they are “dis-covering” - seeing what is already true. They are observing the ongoing work of Christ. What they report is a laundry list of his work. Do you want evidence of Christ’s existence - few are better at giving it than scientists (especially when you segregate reporting the data and interpreting the data).
• Some do so denying his existence and work. They are sustained by his ongoing work, which they then use to deny his existence, even attempting to disprove his existence and work.
• Such is the nature of common grace. How much more is the grace of salvation, to rescue us from this denial?
• What about the laws of nature that seem to reliably govern the universe without the need of any micromanagement?
• Who set the laws? (cf. Job 38. 11 And I said, ‘Thus far you shall come, but no farther; And here shall your proud waves stop’?)
• Who gave the universe its beginning mass and energy?
• What realities are there beyond the physical?
• Are the laws the continual command of the Lord?
• We are to get the impression that if Christ were to halt his attention, the universe would disorganize into chaos.
• Every step that relies on gravity, every breath of air that oxygenates the blood, every visual impulse, every season, every sunrise, each one is an effect of Christ’s work/command.
• When the Bible talks about the Lord telling the mountains to go there or the sun to rise or whatever picturesque description there is, the description is more true than we tend to give (crediting it to “mere” poetry). The laws that govern these realities are the word of Christ. God “speaking” commands to creation is more literal than we often realize.
• The universe bears evidence of God (Rom 1; Psa 8).

Respond

• Every physical reality about me, that I often set in opposition to the “real” work of Christ, is a result of his continual activity.
• Therefore, every sinful act of the flesh is an affront to not only the moral commands of Scripture, but the sustaining physical work of Christ. It is blasphemous not only because we were created in the image of God, but also because we are physically sustained by the active work of Christ.
• Give me the respect of the universe’s (including my own) physicality and laws as the product of Christ’s work, rather than a pure dualistic mentality. Also help me to properly enjoy it.
• Thank you for the way that our physicality can be used to convey spiritual reality.