Wilderness Wonderings

Wilderness Wonderings

Romans

The Freedom to Serve

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“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23)

Slavery vs. freedom. The choice is obvious. Given the choice, freedom is the natural decision. But as a slave, what choices do you have? You are driven by other forces beyond your control – appetites, peer pressure, blindness. But how does one transition from slavery to freedom? A slave cannot buy their own freedom unless they have the resources to pay the price for that freedom. And since the slave hardly earns the financial resources to meet the market demand for their freedom, they must depend upon alternatives. The alternatives are death in slavery or redemption from slavery through someone else paying the price – either the slave owner or another.

In spiritual terms, we are all born into slavery. Slavery to sin thanks to the curse applied by the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. As slaves, we are governed by our appetites and owned by our enemy, Satan. As he is the “god of this world [who] has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4) Our choices for freedom from this slavery are death within slavery or redemption to a new life under a new Lord. “For the wages of sin is death.” This is what we earn for our labors to fulfill our natural selfish appetites. But God offers a better alternative, if only we would open our eyes to see it and take hold of it.

Because our slavery in sin demands a price to be paid for our freedom, and because that price is too great for us to pay it on our own, God Himself paid the price to give us a new life. He redeems us from the penalty of sin by becoming sin on our behalf. “For our sake, He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) The price of death was paid on the cross of Calvary in order to redeem us from the curse of slavery to sin.

As a result, we are provided a new life with a choice. We can choose to live life as a bondservant to our new Lord and enjoy the benefits of our service to Him. The fruit of this life is a treasure most glorious and provides hope beyond our imaginations. However, all too often, we choose to reject His redemption in favor of the familiar chains of bondage. We grow comfortable and adjust to our shackles of pride. We grow complacent and sit on the sidelines, not contributing to the household of our Lord. We live in fear of the discipline of the King rather than live in the freedom of being a child of King.

Freedom is a gift, a gift that we did not nor could we ever do enough to earn. Freedom is also a choice. God doesn’t force Himself upon us. We still have a choice in the matter. We can choose to accept His gift of grace that leads to an eternal life here and now, as well as in the hereafter. Or we can choose to reject His gift and continue to languish in our chains and bondage, wondering why life never gets any better and why we never see any further than our own hand in front of our faces. Just as any parent offers their child a gift, the gift is not theirs until they accept and take possession of the gift. The same principle is true of the fruitful gift of eternal life that God offers us. A life that is lived “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Not “Christ Jesus our Teacher.” Not “Christ Jesus our Savior.” Not “Christ Jesus our Friend.” It’s “Christ Jesus our LORD.” He paid a price to set us free from our old life. Why then do we continue to live like we are still slaves? The reality is still this: we are either slaves to sin or we are slaves to His righteousness. There is no other option. Freedom is found in righteousness. Not our righteousness, which is worth nothing more than filthy rags.

“We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Isaiah 64:6

His righteousness, however, has earned Him the seat on the throne of grace.

“But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it — the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:21-24

The King invites you to His table. He redeems you into His household of faith by His sovereign will. He longs to know you and gift your with freedom beyond what you can possibly imagine. Step away from the chains that lead to death and live a life in the embrace of the Father. The price He paid is worth your devotion.

The Fruit of Your Life

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“For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:20-23)

I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere Louisiana called Pine Grove. The town got its name for obvious reasons. Much of the publicly available land was owned by the local paper mill. The home I grew up in was surrounded by a forest of pine trees, great oaks, sweet gums, black walnut, dogwoods. All of these trees bore some kind of fruit: pine cones, sweet gum balls, acorns, black shelled walnuts, dogwood pods. Pine cones were sharp and woody. Acorns were left for the squirrels. Sweet gum balls and black walnuts were better used as propellants to hit my brothers in the shins.

I remember when growing up, my parents planted a couple of plum trees and and a peach tree that may have produce a couple of fruit here and there over the years, but we didn’t really take proper care of them and they eventually died.

My grandmother and my brothers and I would often spend the summers picking up fallen pecans in 5 gallon buckets from beneath the row of pecan trees that were in the field surrounding her home. We would then spend the next few days and weekends shelling those pecans and filling her freezer. She would then use those pecans in baking pecan pies and her famous chocolate pecan sheet cake.

We also would go over to a friend’s home and pick some mayhaw fruit that she would process into the most amazing jelly – subtle flavor, but sweet and delicious. To this day, that jelly is my favorite, but living in Texas I rarely see it anywhere.

While most trees bear some sort of fruit for the sake of reproduction into other trees of their kind, not all fruit produced by those trees are fit for consumption. That begs the question, if you were a tree, what kind of fruit would you bear? What kind of “trees” do you surround yourself with? Whatever fruit you produce is always going to be designed to reproduce in others around you. Whatever fruit you consume from the “trees” surrounding you, will reproduce within you soon enough.

Do you produce edible fruit in your life – fruit worthy of consumption? Or do you produce poisonous fruit that leads to death? Do you produce succulent fruit but leave it languishing on the branches, not pruning the tree until it eventually withers and dies from neglect? Or do you produce fruit that is transformative and sweet to the taste, reproducing into other trees that also bear good fruit?

The fruit you bear not only indicates what kind of tree you are, but also what kind of seed you spread. If you cross-pollinate with trees that are not compatible with your fruit, then it will produce fruit that is not edible. If you surround yourself with incompatible trees, you will find yourself not producing much fruit at all until you wither away. But if you bear good fruit, take care of the tree from which that fruit grows; then it will produce a reproducible harvest in the appropriate time.

The fruit of sin has a natural consequence of poisoning the relationships around you and destroying yourself in the process. Sin leads to death. It’s inevitable. But the fruit of righteousness “leads to sanctification, and its end, eternal life” – a life that is sweet and characterized by “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

So again, I ask you, what kind of fruit are you producing in your life? Is it worth reproducing? What kind of “trees” are you surrounding yourself with on a consistent basis? Is their fruit worth consuming into your life? I encourage you, be intentional about the relationships you build. Such cross-pollination can enrich the fruit you produce, or it can corrupt and choke it out. “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Who Do You Serve?

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“What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.” (Romans 6:15-19)

One of the great tragedies of modern evangelism is has been the heresy that in order to “be saved”, all you have to do is “ask Jesus into your heart”. The truth of the matter is that I’ve personally never understood what that terminology really meant. The implication of this heretical teaching is that you don’t need to change your life because Jesus loves you just the way you are. The reality is that Jesus loves you too much to keep you the way you are. Otherwise, His sacrifice on the cross was meaningless.

If the life you are leading is no different after you “experienced Christ”, then you haven’t experienced Him. No person in all of Scripture has ever encountered Jesus and not walked away changed. Those who chose to follow Him experienced a renewed sense of life. Those who chose to walk away experienced despondency and some even experienced rage to the point of plotting His murder. A genuine encounter with Jesus leaves you changed; the question is what kind of change do you experience?

Do you draw closer to Him, recognizing that the life you were once leading wasn’t good enough because only He is good enough? Or do you reject His call to repentance and continue to live your life the same degenerate life you were already living serving only yourself and your appetites? Are you a slave to your self and sin or are you a bondservant of the Most High God? There is no in between.

The cost of discipleship is the taking up of your cross daily to follow Him. This means identifying with His death, recognizing that your old life was not enough. It was empty and devoid of eternal meaning. It has been said that we are all born with a hole in our hearts that we try to fill with all manner of temporal stuff: money, possessions, people, sex, drugs, entertainment. Anything to dull the pain of that longing to be truly fulfilled.

Like the woman at the well, we float from one dalliance to the next seeking comfort in the arms of another, but never experiencing hope or peace along the way. But Jesus comes along and offers water from a well that never runs dry. Water that quenches the eternal thirst. Water that refreshes and brings life unimaginable. This is the compassion of Christ – He loves us so much that He welcomes us and desires to have a relationship with us, even though we do not deserve His mercy or compassion. But He loves us too much to leave us in our sin. He seeks to transform our lives and instill within our hearts hope. Hope that only comes when we choose to follow Him.

Repent – Refresh – Renew – Repeat

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“For the death He died He died to sin, once for all, but the life He lives He lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” (Romans 6:10-14)

Servanthood is inevitable. You either serve your selfish appetites (sin) or you serve the Father (grace). There is no middle ground and door between the two is dying to self, in order that you might experience a renewed life. With new eyes to have a vision of eternity. With new ears to hear the beauty of creation. With new hands to touch the lives of others. With a new heart broken for the things that break the heart of God.

Jesus once said “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). I’ve never been one that likes the modern use of the phrase “my cross to bear.” Its use implies that in the experience of life, we are expected to inevitably suffer on a daily basis for just existing. However, the reality is that Jesus is calling us to do three things:

  1. Set aside our worldly passions and self-centered ambitions
  2. Identify with His suffering with gratitude and humility daily
  3. Renew our vision towards His Kingdom

It begins with repentance. It begins with laying aside our selfish ways that have caused us to continually run headlong into the same wall over and over again, frustrating our efforts at life. Instead of living life blaming everyone around us for why things are going our way, perhaps the best place to look is inward and examine our own heart. As Paul wrote “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

Once we experience repentance, we need to remember to daily and humbly recognize and honor and submit to the sacrifice that Jesus paid on our behalf. Yes, the Scriptures do say that there will be suffering in this life. But all of us suffer – it’s the human experience. But suffering is a state of mind, more so than a physical reality. Sure, there is physical pain and mental emotion pain, but suffering is allowing that pain to paralyze you to the point that you begin to implode upon yourself. When we identify with His suffering, it doesn’t mean that we go about our renewed life hunched over and complaining all the time about how difficult the Christian life is. It is difficult, yes. But it is far more rewarding when we recognize that we do not have to work for or earn the Father’s favor. He paid the price to make us His own. That blood redemption is what makes all the difference.

Once we recognize and identify with the price that Jesus paid to redeem us, then we are called to renew our vision for His Kingdom. This means not allowing our lives to be characterized by sin, but by redemption. Not to allow our lives to be ruled by the failed kingdom of this humanistic existence, but to be ruled by the grace of our Abba Father who love us, comforts us, and empowers us to be His ambassadors in this world.

“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20) Just as today, ambassadors between nations and kingdoms are sent to do 2 main missions: 1. represent the executive leader of the country they serve and 2. appeal for relational reconciliation between the members of the two kingdoms. Ambassadors are expected to represent the king, President, etc. in their behavior and actions and decisions in the execution of their duties. More importantly, we are called to reconcile the world to our Creator and draw all into a relationship with Him so that we might all experience the joy of His Kingdom.

That is what it means to no long let sin have “dominion over you” but to live “under grace.” It does not mean that we live wanton lives disregarding the dictates of God’s word. As with any Kingdom, there are rules for order and expectations of behavior in society. We cannot live a libertarian existence in the Kingdom of God and expect to experience the grace and joy that the Kingdom affords. If that is the case, then we are quite literally spitting in the face of Christ and saying that His sacrifice was worthless.

Repent your behaviors. Reset your attitudes. Renew your vision. It’s a daily habit. It’s a daily requirement. For the sake of the Kingdom.

It Is Finished

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“Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.” (Romans 6:8-9)

From death to life. The reversal of the natural order takes a supernatural effort that can only come through the grace of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of the Son, Jesus Christ. As a result, we can know with full assurance that because Jesus has died once for us all, He will never die again as He has defeated the very power of death.

There have been other stories of resurrection throughout Scripture. The first was the son of the widow of Zaraphath in 1 Kings 17. This was soon followed by Elisha’s raising of the Shunnamite woman’s son in 2 Kings 4 and the mugging victim that was killed and thrown into Elisha’s grave in 2 Kings 13. But these three isolated events are the only Old Testament mentions of bodily resurrection. In the New Testament, there are 7 other incidents:

  1. The widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7)
  2. Jarius’ Daughter (Mark 5)
  3. Lazarus (John 11)
  4. Many deceased “saints” or believers at the moment of Jesus’ death on Calvary (Matthew 27)
  5. Jesus Himself (all four gospels and even testified to by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15)
  6. Tabitha, or Dorcas, who died and Peter raised up. (Acts 9:40)
  7. Eutychus – who fell out of a window and was raised by Paul (Acts 20:9-10)

What is common to all of these resurrection events except for one is that the person who was resurrected later died again, this time forever. There has been suggestions made that the multitude that was raised at Jesus’ death have not died but are possibly still alive in the world today, yet in secret. I’m not sure I believe this one. I’m more inclined to believe that God took them up in a manner similar to the translation of Enoch.

But Jesus died, and was resurrected only to never die again. Forty days after His resurrection, He ascended to the Father so that ten days later on Pentacost, the Holy Spirit would descend and empower the apostles to spread the gospel to every corner of the globe. In most of the cases of resurrection, the scene is coupled with the order for the witnesses to serve the one who was resurrected.

For the widow’s son and the Shunammite woman’s son, the mothers were told to provide food to the raised child. When Jesus raised Jarius daughter, He ordered her to be fed. When Lazarus was raised, Jesus ordered the onlookers to unbind Him. As there was a group in the home with Peter as he raised Tabitha, it is reasonable to assume that he had them help her regain her strength. Paul fed Eutychus after raising Him up.

In each case, there is something to be said for being a servant to those who have freshly experienced new life. It is for this reason, that we are charged to “tend the lambs” and strengthen new believers in their faith so that they can learn to live the example of Christ so that “death no longer has dominion” over them. Yes, we will all die one day. It is the natural order of things and the natural consequence of our sinful nature.

But the supernatural consequence of a newly resurrected life in Christ is an existence that is no longer marked by death, but one destined for life eternal. It is the great spiritual paradox of our faith – that we must die to ourselves so that we might have life in Him. Only then in the end, can we echo the cry of Jesus from the cross: “It is finished!”

They mocked Him
Beat Him
Stripped Him bare
Paraded Him through the streets
Without a worldly care
His disciples cowered
As they denied His very name
Blood stained streets
Would bear His shame

They lifted Him up for the world to see
An example of what happens when you defy
The cultural and religious
The politically ambitious
That reign on high
As He cried “TETELESTAI!”

“It is FINISHED!”
The price was paid!
The debt redeemed!
As His blood was spilt
In a sight unseen

“It is FINISHED!” He cried
As the veil was torn
As He bowed His head
As He bore our scorn

“It is FINISHED!” He cried
As He hung there and died
Soldiers gambling for His clothes
What they truly did they did not know
Except His mother
As she slowly turned to go

“It is finished” she whispered
Through her tears
Remembering her baby’s years
How He grew to be a fearsome man
A faithful man
A loving man
A man for all time
Living Truth sublime

“It is finished” John breathlessly said
After running to the garden tomb
Rejoicing as he glanced
Into the empty happenstance
Seeing the King of grace
Was no longer in this fearful place

“It is finished” I will say
When I end this final race
And I look upon my Savior’s face
When His blood red wine I finally taste
And His Life bread upon my plate
I will feast with Him in glory
As we laugh and tell the story
Of how life is but a vapor
But grace brings life that is greater
And we will all stand together as one
For the glory of the Son
Who gave His blood so He could win us
And we could all cry together
“IT IS FINISHED!”

A Question of Life and Death

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“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.” (Romans 6:5-7 ESV)

The issue of sin in the life of the believer is not a question of right or wrong; it’s a question of life and death. If we establish the fact that sin, by definition, is disobedience to God, then the transformative power of grace is defined by the daily surrender (metaphorically dying to self) to the will of the Father.

Jesus said in John 10:10 that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” A life that is characterized by sin and walking in the selfishness of the flesh is a life that is submitted to the thief and is marked as a dead existence. However, a life that is characterized as submitted fully to Christ, daily surrendering our will to the will of the Father through the power of the Spirit for the glory of the Son is a life that is resurrected.

We find salvation in Christ because the Holy Spirit has convicted us of our sin and as a result we come to understand that our way of living is a dead end and doesn’t work in the grand eternal scheme. We learn that like children we are enslaved to our natural appetites, desires, and carnal thinking. However, living in the Spirit is a transformative experience that begins with the renewal of the mind, transforming the heart, and working its way out in our choices, actions, attitudes, and behaviors.

Repentance is a daily renewing of the mind, recognizing that that our old life before we met Christ is now crucified and buried and left for dead behind us. Our new life in Christ is a life that is no longer a dead, burdensome existence that weighs us down, but is characterized by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are all the fruit of the Spirit-filled life that grow in our hearts, minds, and attitudes driving our actions forward for the sake of the Kingdom of God, not our own mini-kingdom where we make the rules on our own.

As a result, this necessitates an external standard of moral truth as opposed to a relativistic standard of truth that applies to each individual. Truth is not relative. We can all agree that murder is wrong, but on what basis? When we take away an objective, external standard of moral truth, we end up with shifting standards that result in chaos, confusion, and anarchy.

As a bondservant of Christ, we are free from the shackles and enslavement to sin that is self-destructive. The difference between being a slave and a bondservant is the ability to exercise the will. As a bondservant, it is your choice to submit to the will of the Father in your heart and mind. Aside from Christ, you are enslaved to your sin and self and all of the desires, appetites, and self-destructive behaviors that can naturally bring. Sure, by worldly standards, there are “good people” in the world. But that standard is constantly shifting with the winds of time from one month to the next, none more apparent than it is today.

However, with a standard that is solid and unchanging – a foundational rock upon which you can build your life, the life in Christ – there is peace and stability and hope. There is confidence in knowing that the standards do not change. There is confidence in knowing that we are all held accountable to the same standards. There is confidence in knowing what it takes to please the Father because His nature is unchanging.

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