[NOTE: For those who are continuing the 1-year Bible reading plan we started on April 1, 2018, just go to the end of this entry and you will find the Day 325-Romans 4-7; Matthew 12 summary!]
Deuteronomy 10 starts with Moses telling of receiving two new stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. These were the same as the first ones God had written. Moses placed them in the Ark of the covenant as God commanded. The remainder of chapter 10 and all of chapter 11 offers Moses’ admonition to the Israelites to love and obey God, because of His great love for them. He tells them the consequences for obedience and disobedience, and then tells them to choose “life,” which means to choose obedience, rather than choosing “death,” which would be the result of disobedience. These chapters offer us a strong reminder that in every era we receive consequences for our actions. While we typically think of the word “consequence” as negative, consequences are simply the logical outcomes of previous actions. The logical outcome of loving and obeying the God of the universe is “life.” While we know people, including ourselves, who have loved and obeyed God and still experienced challenge and difficulty, the principle remains: loving and obeying God leads to life. Because of Jesus’ coming, because of His perfect life, sacrificial death and resurrection, we who trust God, and love and obey Him in the power of the Holy Spirit will experience life in all its abundance. We might experience bumps on the road in the short-term, but in eternal terms, our lives will be blessed.
Deuteronomy 12 offers us a crucial truth for God’s people in any era of history: Do not worship as the pagans worship. Worship only as God decrees. The Israelites were about to enter a land filled with idol worshipers. God told them to destroy every idol and every “high place” where the idols were worshiped. The analogy for us is not to indulge ourselves in pagan worship practices, whether witchcraft or Satanism, eastern religions or any practice that doesn’t originate from our desire to worship the one, true living God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We live in relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The world over, people practice religion–the pursuit of “God” or a deity through actions designed to please or appease the god of that religion. Religion is as old as humanity, but only through the one, true God do we gain a relationship that brings lives of meaning and purpose here and now and forever.
John 18 records the betrayal, arrest, and trial of Jesus. It also records Peter’s denial of Jesus. As we move through the chapter, we might easily miss a couple of amazing responses to Jesus in it. First, when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, and He told them He was Jesus they “fell back.” 400 trained soldiers faced one man, Jesus, and at the mere admission from Jesus that He was the one they were seeking, they fell back. We might think of Jesus as a “nice” man, as a “pleasant” man, and to be sure, Jesus must have been kind and caring as we see through His interactions with so many. But John shows us in the situation when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus, a military or at least police action, Jesus’ mere presence was enough to frighten 400 soldiers!
During Jesus’ interaction with Pilate, Jesus told Pilate His Kingdom was not of this world. Pilate responded, “So you are a king then?” Jesus neither confirmed nor denied the position, but told Pilate, He came to reveal the truth. Pilate asked, “What is truth?” but didn’t wait for Jesus’ response. Pilate had the truth standing in front of him and could have learned the deep truths of God and reality. Instead, he walked away, returning to the crowd and telling them he found no guilt in Jesus. Despite finding Jesus not guilty, he condemned Jesus, because he was afraid of the crowd. We could say the crowd was more guilty than Pilate, because they called for Jesus’ crucifixion, but Pilate had both the power and authority to free Jesus. Instead, because of his fear of the crowd, and his fear he might lose his position, he succumbed to the crowd. Lest we be too hard on Pilate, think of how often we have been in a position to stand up for Jesus, but let the opportunity go, because we either didn’t want to start an argument, or didn’t want to be seen as a fanatic. We always find it easier to condemn others’ actions, than to hold ourselves accountable for our own. But as Jesus reminded the Pharisees back in John 8, we can only condemn others if we have no sin ourselves.
Day 325-Romans 4-7; Matthew 12
In Romans 4, Paul offers Abraham as an example of a man who lived by faith. He even tells us Abraham “never” wavered in his faith. We know Abraham did, at times, waver in his faith. He didn’t trust God’s promise to give him and Sarah a son. He lied to protect himself when he told leaders of other places Sarah was his “sister.” But Paul’s words are true, so how can that be? Max Lucado offers the explanation that Paul’s words about Abraham are an example of “the editing of grace.” Abraham was not perfect, but Paul presents him that way, because through grace he was. We see this happen in our own lives, when one we love dies. Over time, the bad memories seem to fade, and the good ones become more vivid. Through this editing of grace, our memories of the loved one grow fonder, and our own faith increases.
In Romans 5, Paul offers one of the most amazing truths in all of Scripture: Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. Throughout the chapter, Paul shows us how different Jesus, who he refers to as the “second” Adam, was from the first Adam. Adam introduced sin into the world, but Jesus redeemed us from sin and death. His love for us didn’t come because we were good, or after we demonstrated improvement in our lives. Jesus loved us while we were still sinners. What amazingly good news.
In Romans 6, Paul raised a vital question, “If we are saved by grace, should we go on sinning so God’s grace may abound?” It sounds reasonable. If we love to sin, and God loves to forgive sin, why not sin more so God’s grace can come to us in even greater measure. Paul’s response is as strong as it gets. In the Greek, he wrote “Me genoito!” We could translate it “God forbid.” It’s the strongest, possible way to say, “No!” in the Greek language. Paul’s point is clear: Jesus died to free us from sin. Why would we continue to live in it. Paul goes on to point out we are “slaves” to whatever masters us. We can either be slaves to sin or to Jesus, but not both. Jesus reminded us no one can serve two masters. It isn’t possible. Jesus bottom-lined out to no one can serve both God and money. Paul bottom-lines out to we can serve sin or righteousness. Both remind us how crucial it is to put God first, and to live in His ways!
In Romans 7, Paul offers an illustration of how we overcome sin in our lives: we die. While that sounds extreme, and it is, Paul meant we die to sin and the law. He offers an illustration from everyday life, of a woman who is married to a stern husband. Until the husband dies, the woman is obligated to her husband. But if the husband dies, she is free to remarry. In the illustration, we are the wife, the Mosaic Law is the husband, and Jesus is the new husband. The Law instructed us in the ways of righteousness, but we could never live up to its standard. In the second half of Romans 7, in which Paul tells us how he struggled with sin, not doing what he ought and doing what he didn’t want to do. Some biblical scholars assume this was Paul’s pre-conversion testimony. In other words, he lived this way before trusting Jesus as Savior and Lord. But I find Paul’s words ring true in my life now. When I attempt to follow the rules, I fail. Paul concludes by telling us the solution, “Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord!” It is Jesus, and what He did on the cross that frees us from sin, and it is His empowering Spirit that frees us to live new lives. We’ll see that tomorrow as we turn to Romans 8.
As we return to Matthew 12, Jesus tells the religious leaders He is “Lord of the Sabbath” as a result of His disciples “working” on the Sabbath, by picking some heads of grain to eat. Jesus was attacking the religious leaders’ trivialization of the Sabbath, through their efforts to make it attainable through human efforts. Jesus further demonstrated His power over the Sabbath, by healing a man on the Sabbath. This only caused the religious leaders to go out and plot how they could kill Jesus. Jesus withdrew from that place as a result. The religious leaders accused Jesus of performing miracles by the power of the devil, to which Jesus responded, “A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.” Jesus condemned the religious leaders for their unwillingness to see the power of God at work. Jesus went on to tell them He would offer them no sign of His authority, but the sign of “Jonah,” which was a reference to His death and burial. The chapter closes with Jesus being sought by His mother and brothers. He reminds the people that anyone who does the will of His Heavenly Father is His mother, sister, and brother. What a powerful reminder to us that we who trust Jesus as Savior and Lord, are a family, who is called to love and serve one another, and offer Jesus’ salvation to the world.