2022 Romans Commentary

Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 3, Romans 4, Romans 5

Day 1: Skimming through Romans 1-5, these verses stand out to me:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”
 
“There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.”

“But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. … Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

Day 2: Skimming through Romans 1-5 again, the word “obedience” is prevalent, for there is obedience in faith, or there is no faith at all. Romans 6 is the answer to Romans 4 & 5, and it ought to be read along with it. In the meantime, we ought to look at the anchor statements that help to solidify what Paul is saying and what he isn’t saying. Romans 3:31 is one of them: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” Through our salvational faith in Christ, a free gift of grace that justifies us before God, the law becomes established in our hearts so we can obey it with the help of the Holy Spirit while being sanctified. Paul gets into this in Chapter 6, starting with another anchor statement in Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” As Christians saved through faith, the Holy Spirit helps us obey God’s law, which is righteousness, and walk away from sin, which is lawlessness.

I also noted that “righteousness” and “unrighteousness” are repeated over and over again. Scripture defines these terms. Righteousness is defined by God’s law. Unrighteousness or lawlessness is defined as violating God’s law. This is also the definition for sin. Paul’s writing is clear when you understand what he’s actually saying.

Day 3: “Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;” Romans 1:1-6

I’m amazed by Paul’s conversion and calling by our Lord Jesus Christ, and while there are few like him—certainly not any who would produce the same foundational understanding of the Gospel—there are modern examples of men and women who have left behind a life of darkness and come into the Lord’s marvelous light. While not to the same extent, I see Lee Strobel’s conversion to be similar to Paul’s. Once a man who persecuted Christians, who went on a quest to disprove Christianity when his wife became a follower of Jesus, Strobel was met on his modern investigatory road by Jesus and became a believer because of the overwhelming evidence he found—sort of like the blinding light that Paul experienced. To this day, Strobel preaches the Gospel with vigor, for he was lost, but now he is saved, blind, but now he sees.

Paul, like Strobel, knew the nature of his wretchedness and where he came from, and he writes about it often. When confronted with the demons of his past deeds, Jesus told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him. Paul would need to deepen his faith so that he could do the work for the Lord without succumbing to the discouragement that could come from just looking back. For Paul, becoming a bond servant for the Lord Jesus who called Him was the only way He could ever live. He was set apart by Christ to teach the gospel of God, which God promised in His Scripture repeatedly before Christ came to fulfill these promises, and this is what freed him.

Paul, an expert in Scripture as a Pharisee of Pharisees, would be able to show “Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” these mysteries like no other man.  Consider these clauses as a prime example: “…Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake…” The whole structure of the faith is here. We receive both grace, the free gift of salvation through faith in the blood of Jesus, and apostleship, the gift of the Holy Spirit to help us do the work the Lord calls us to do, so that we can bring about “the obedience of faith,” or faithfulness, into the lives of those we preach to, yes, but also by living out this example in our own lives. The obedience of faith is a trust in God’s Word, the commandments He has given us, and a new life we live in the Spirit to do them with God’s help on account of our faith in our Messiah and our love for our God.

Day 4: “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 1:7

Paul’s greeting is the priestly blessing from Numbers 6:22-27: “The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you; The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.” It’s wonderful to see this blessing administered with a new understanding; Yeshua, our Messiah, is God, and He brings the blessing to us all.

Day 5: “First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world. For God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly I make mention of you, always in my prayers making request, if perhaps now at last by the will of God I may succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. So, for my part, I am eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall live by faith.”” Romans 1:8-17

Faith is doing; it is not just believing. It is showing through action that we truly trust the Lord and therefore do what He commanded. We have the free gift of salvation & the free gift of God’s Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and when we have opened ourselves up to obey God He helps us obey Him with His power, because we do not have the power to do this on our own. However, we personally are the gatekeepers of whether we decide in our hearts to truly follow Him or not. One can say that he believes, but if he does not keep the commandments of God, he is a liar & the truth is not in Him, John said in 1 John 2:4. Thus, our heart must be to obey, & then He will help us. If one’s heart is rebellious, there will be no help, only death. The Gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” There are not two dispensations or covenants. The New Covenant is the only active covenant, and the one who is not party to it will not make it.

The righteousness of God is quite simple; for He has defined it in His commandments and through Jesus, who perfectly fulfilled the commandments. He commanded us: “pick up your cross and follow Me.” We too must fulfill the commandments, to do everything He did. Paul reveals the mystery of how this is even possible: “For in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” The righteous man, the one who keeps the commandments of God by following Jesus, can only accomplish this by fully trusting in God Most High, for there is no other way to do this than by His Holy Spirit, who Jesus sent to help us. John 14 explains this in detail. And so Paul, knowing this truth, prays for the brethren to build them up, and acknowledges he Himself needs to be built up by other believers, for the hardest thing about following Yeshua is to endure on the narrow path, and other believers who are walking alongside makes the walk easier.

Day 6: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.” Romans 1:18-32

The dichotomy Paul linguistically paints in our minds is the difference between taking the Mark of God or the Mark of the Beast, for they are opposed, and there is no middle ground, for Jesus will spit the lukewarm out of His mouth. We either love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and by so doing love our neighbor as ourselves, or we love the world and/or the flesh with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and by so doing, treat our brothers and sisters as expendable objects to be used for our own purposes. The Mark is on our forehead or our right hand. It is what we think, what we say and what we do. We either meditate on God’s law day and night, learn it, and grow wise in it, through our faith in Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, or there are those who reject this path, and they therefore get worse and worse, further away from the truth.

I see this path as a single spiral staircase up to Heaven or down to Hell—the path getting narrower the closer to the top you get and wider the closer to the bottom. One cannot walk in both directions. Jesus is at the top of the stairs, having shown us the way to the top. When we are in Christ, we walk toward Him. When we are of the World, we walk away from Him. The word “repent” means to change direction. It literally means we stop walking down and start walking up along the narrow path. We have the ability to walk up the staircase on account of Christ, otherwise, we just couldn’t even do it. His death is what put that staircase in place. He is the ladder Jacob saw. I see the spiral represent the intensity of the knowledge of wisdom of God as you walk upwards, learning more and more about Him and His ways and choosing to do them as we grow, or the intensity of sin, as God gives those who sin over to their sin, and they stumble along down the dark path. He calls to us: choose life.

To me, the Truth of God has always been self evident. It’s not a mystery, it’s obvious, and Paul really does a good job describing why I think this way. “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.” The obviousness of sin and the damage it does to our lives is also plain to see, the fact that we all do it is also clear, and the need to be made right before God is self evident. Jesus is the obvious answer to this dilemma, and I couldn’t imagine any life that doesn’t pursue Him fully. It doesn’t make sense to me; honestly, it doesn’t. But like Paul describing the depravity of idolatry leading to sexual sin, or sexual sin leading to idolatry on that vicious downward spiral, the more one becomes calloused to sin, the harder is it for them to see. Their minds are darkened. However, with Christ in us, His light shines brighter every day as we pursue Him and all His ways, trying to please Him in everything we do with all our heart, and He reveals more and more of Himself to us. We are without excuse if we do not fully embrace Him.

Day 7: “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” Romans 2:1-11

The nuance in Romans 2:1-11 is important, for otherwise there arises confusing ideas; for instance, that we somehow assume righteousness just through belief in Christ, which is not the case. In fact, I believe Paul warns about this type of presumptuous sin right within these verses. There are a number of concepts to address, and so I will do so one-by-one:

1) “You have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Here Paul is clarifying several concepts. Jesus said, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5). In other words, first get yourself right with God. Repent of your own sins and turn away from them and start following Jesus. Then, you have the right to judge those within the body of Christ. Paul makes this clear in 1 Corinthians 5, where a man is having sexual relations with his father’s wife. Paul orders the church to judge this man and cast him out of the church to be destroyed by Satan. Verses 12-13 are of particular significance: “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.” Paul is saying it is right to judge those inside the church who sin, according to the principles of Matthew 18:15-17 of course, but those who are outside the church God will judge. We have to be very careful to address the nuance, because it is important.

2) “But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God?” Don’t be a hypocrite, for hypocrites will be destroyed in the lake of fire (Matthew 24:51).

3) “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” We are all sinners worthy of death, but Messiah paid the price for our sins, and it God’s act of kindness on the cross that ought to lead us to repentance. Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” We ought not boast in our good works, or obedience to the commandments, because just one error and we are guilty of sin and death. Rather, it is because of our salvation that we obey the commandments of God, because we love the one who saved us and worship Him in His lovingkindness. It is this lovingkindness that leads us to obey God’s commandments. The commandments themselves do not save us—only God saves us through Yeshua’s death on the cross. Once saved, we must turn toward Him to be sanctified in His righteousness.

4) “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.” There are only two ways to go, not three as some might suppose. If you have a stubborn and unrepentant heart, meaning that you are not willing to accept Christ as your savior OR you are not willing to repent and obey God’s commandments, OR both, you will be destroyed in Hell on the Last Day. God will render to each according to His deeds, so don’t think for a moment that your obedience to God’s commandments doesn’t matter. It is the very proof of your love and trust in Him. Those who by perseverance in doing good, that is, those who obey the commandments of God, seek for glory and honor and immortality, will inherit eternal life with Jesus. The word “seek” is critical here. It’s not enough to believe, we must also follow Him and fulfill the law as He did, even unto our own death on the cross. “Pick up your cross and follow Me,” He said. That means, do everything that I did, exactly how I did it, if that is God’s will for you. I am your model to follow.

5) “There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” It matters what we do, whether obey God or disobey God, and there is no in between. Is our heart to obey? If so, we are following Christ, and if we endure in this to the end, we will inherit life, whether we are a Jew or a non-Jew by blood. Is our heart to rebel against God’s ways or disregard God’s law, we are following after the flesh and the world and ultimately will die in our sins, regardless of whether we are a Jew or a non-Jew by blood. The Saints are those who endure in their faith in Jesus and keep the commandments of God—all of them, because we love the God who saved us. This testimony of two is needed for glorification on the Last Day, which ought to be our end goal.

Day 8 “For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law; for it is not the hearers of the Law who are just before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified. For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. But if you bear the name “Jew” and rely upon the Law and boast in God, and know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature, having in the Law the embodiment of knowledge and of the truth, you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. For indeed circumcision is of value if you practice the Law; but if you are a transgressor of the Law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So if the uncircumcised man keeps the requirements of the Law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? And he who is physically uncircumcised, if he keeps the Law, will he not judge you who though having the letter of the Law and circumcision are a transgressor of the Law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Romans 2:12-29

As Paul continues, it’s important for us to remind each other that Paul’s writing can be confusing and can not be read without context. Rather, each verse ought to be read so that it aligns with the rest of Paul’s writing as well as the whole of Scripture, for there is nothing new that Paul can introduce to us that contradicts the Word of God. That would be blasphemy. He uses metaphors and allusions to the Torah in almost every line. Peter warned us to be careful with Paul’s writing in 2 Peter 3:14-16, and so we ought to read and interpret with care, and not by any private interpretation. We need to test the spirits and make sure Paul’s words align with Scripture, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Thus, we cannot gloss over the first few lines in Romans 2:12-29, and we ought to read these verses as they are intended; namely, to speak the Truth, which is the Word of God. So, it is clear that those who sin and don’t know the law will be destroyed by God. Specifically, Jesus will open His mouth and a two-edged sword of fire will come out of His mouth and consume those who do not keep the law with all of their heart. That’s in Revelation 19:11-15 and Psalm 97:3, among many other places. Likewise, those who do know the law but sin against it will also be destroyed by God; that is, by Jesus, who will come to judge the living and the dead on the Last Day. Paul next says the same thing as James in James 2:14-24: “it is not the hearers of the Law who are justified before God, but the doers of the Law will be justified.” This means quite plainly that those who obey the commandments of God will be justified. The context shows us that he doesn’t mean those who follow the letter of the law, but rather the spirit of the law, which has been written on our hearts.

Next, Paul goes through a number of scenarios where we ought to apply these concepts. He also answers the question of many non-Christians who doubt Christ on account of the hypothetical people in the remote parts of the world who have never had a chance to meet Him. The long and the short is that the Holy Spirit of Jesus has fallen on all flesh, and we all have the opportunity to know Him, even if we have never heard of Him from another person. Thus, Gentiles who do not have the law (meaning they have never heard of it before) who instinctively keep the law, show that they indeed possess the Spirit of God. As we read in Jeremiah 31:31-33, the law is written on the hearts of all those who Jesus has called, and who submit to Him spiritually The Holy Spirit helps convict the heart of the one who accepts the One True God, whether accusing or defending their thoughts, helping to direct them in their words and deeds. These are held to account by Jesus according to whether they have rebelled or accepted the Spirit’s work on their conscience.

For those who were born Jews, they are held to a higher standard. They not only know the law, but they were trained up in it their entire lives. It is not their knowledge of the law that they can boast in, for knowledge of the law does not save. Paul essentially tells his brethren: don’t be a hypocrite. If they are going to teach the law to others who don’t know it, they themselves had better be keeping it themselves. God called Israel specifically for this purpose, and it is their duty to be a light to the Gentiles and to make way for the Messiah who would save us all, both Jew and Greek. Paul asks, “do you teach yourself?” Meaning, if you are teaching others to keep the law, you better be keeping it yourself. You had better be practicing what you preach. This is again the same teaching that Jesus gave us: “first take the plank out of your own eye before you remove the speck from your neighbor’s eye.”

It is sin to boast in our obedience to the law, for we are not saved by these works. For those of us who know the law, yet sin, we are equally worthy of death, for we are saved by grace through faith alone. When we say we obey the law, but break the law in the presence of those who we are teaching, we literally blaspheme God, Paul writes. This is a violation of the Third Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord Your God in vain.” Beware! Do not boast in the law, but rather boast in Christ, who has saved us.

One of the primary issues that Paul was dealing with in his interaction between Jews and Gentiles was circumcision, which is addressed in Acts 15, Galatians and again here in Romans. Circumcision was a sign of the Old Covenant, and circumcision of the heart is a sign of the New Covenant. It is not physical, but spiritual. Paul’s point here is that if you are circumcised physically, but violate the law in other areas, you are as good as dead. However, if you do practice the law, circumcision is of value, Paul says, because once saved, we are called to obey the commandments of God. In fact, Jesus tells us that unless we are baptized by water and by the Spirit of God, we cannot make it into Heaven: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) and “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” (1 Peter 3:21) It’s not just an outward sign. It’s a move of the Holy Spirit, and yes, it is needed. However, one must consciously elect to follow Chris by their own free will; an infant cannot do this.

Finally, the grand conclusion of the matter makes it clear that as Gentiles who trust in Messiah Yeshua, are grafted-in to the Nation of Israel. Paul writes: You “are a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Thus, as Jesus explains in Matthew 5, it is not enough to avoid adultery, but we must also not even look with lust at a woman or man, for we would commit adultery in our hearts by so doing. Likewise, being angry with a brother is akin to murder. The standard of the law is much greater than what we see on paper. Thus, we also MUST keep the Sabbath, as commanded, for Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath, and by keeping it, we honor Him who saved us and who created the Heavens and the Earth and everything in it. If the Spirit of the Lord is in us, He will convict us to obey the commandments of God, not by the letter, but by the Spirit.

It is a matter of the heart. Is our heart to obey God? Good, we ought to study His law day and night and let the Holy Spirit of God direct us on how to make it a part of how we live. Will we stumble? Yes, but we have an advocate in Jesus Christ who sits as intercessor on the throne of God. What is our heart? Is our heart to obey or rebel, to hear or to ignore, to see or to remain blind? One thing is certain, “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12) And we know from Jeremiah 17:9 that “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?” We have to be careful that we are not following our own heart and falsely assuming that our heart is being directed by the Holy Spirit. This is blasphemy, a sin worthy of death. The heart of flesh rebels against the law of God. There is only one way to know if we are men or women after God’s own heart, like David was, and that is to study the law day and night and keep the commandments of God. This is God’s own heart, and this is the law that He writes on your heart. The Holy Spirit helps us keep it by convicting us as we read the Word of God.

Day 9: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all, that they were entrusted with the oracles of God. What then? If some did not believe, their unbelief will not nullify the faithfulness of God, will it? May it never be! Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar, as it is written, “That You may be justified in Your words, And prevail when You are judged.” But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) May it never be! For otherwise, how will God judge the world? But if through my lie the truth of God abounded to His glory, why am I also still being judged as a sinner? And why not say (as we are slanderously reported and as some claim that we say), “Let us do evil that good may come”? Their condemnation is just. What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave, With their tongues they keep deceiving,” “The poison of asps is under their lips”; “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness”; “Their feet are swift to shed blood, Destruction and misery are in their paths, And the path of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” Now we know that whatever the Law says, it speaks to those who are under the Law, so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God; because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:1-20

I’m reading the NASB 1995 version this year, NKJV last year, the ESV the year before that. I highly recommend doing this, for it helps in understanding, but nothing is better than looking at an interlinear Bible, available on BibleHub.com, and studying the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek words and their meaning, pairing up with the Strong’s Concordance and the HELPS Word studies from the Discovery Bible. All of these tools are really powerful in fully understanding the Word of God, and God does want us to pursue Him with all of our heart and study His Word day and night, so this level of study can only do one thing: help us get closer to God and build our relationship with Him. I personally don’t read commentaries, because I believe that they can be and often are misleading. It is far more powerful to study the Word in this way that I’ve described, and work within a Bible study group to discuss interpretations as derived directly from the text of Scripture, so there is no private interpretation. All this being said, the NASB version of Romans 3:1-20 is not the best translation I’ve read of this section, but here we go.

Paul introduces His use of “anchor statements” in Romans 3:1-20 and you will find them throughout Romans as well as in Galatians. They are critically important to understanding his rhetoric as he writes. In the NASB, these statements are translated: “may it never be.” In the NKJV, the translation is “certainly not.” In the ESV, “by no means.” I think the NKJV is the most accurate, but the point of the matter is that these statements help to answer the question Paul is asking right before it. He is giving the reader a whole bunch of truth of Scripture; however, Paul realizes that his fluid use of language may lead the reader down a path of interpretation that he does not intend, and so to make sure that doesn’t happen, he adds the rhetorical anchor statement. We see that today and we will see it tomorrow in a most powerful way.

The first anchor statement in Romans 3:1-20 clarifies the fact that some Jews had denied the arrival of their own prophesied Messiah, but their denial does not nullify the Messiah’s coming. God’s faithfulness to Israel and to all the Nations is True whether we accept Messiah or not, and the Messiah has come, whether we believe or not. Nevertheless, for those Jews who did accept the Messiah, they by far have an advantage over the Gentiles who accept the Messiah. “They were entrusted with the oracles of God,” and thus they have a much greater understanding of who the Messiah is and what He accomplished, and they already know God’s commandments, so their ministry of spreading the Gospel can be instantly powerful and the Holy Spirit can immediately do a great work in them, helping them to obey all the commandments they already know. This describes Paul, Peter, et.al. to the letter, for as Jews, they are in a position to powerfully embrace the Messiah and make His work their focus without delay. The Gentiles were blessed to have a pharisee of pharisees, Paul himself, as their teacher.

Secondly, Paul indicates that God, who is righteous, will bring wrath on those who practice unrighteousness. Jesus is actually the one who will come to judge the living and the dead. He will literally melt all the unrighteousness that stands before Him by fire that comes out of His mouth. The rebels’ eyes will melt in their sockets, similar to the way this would occur after the impact of an atomic bomb, and it will be the law and the prophets, the two witnesses, that He will use to judge all flesh on the Last Day, for this is His standard. Paul uses another anchor statement to confirm that God is righteous, a God of law, and it is because of His righteousness that He has the authority to judge those who are unrighteous and destroy those who rebel against Him. He has afforded us with a single path to victory, Messiah Yeshua, by His lovingkindness and mercy, which endures forever. His glory is a two-edged sword: “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Now, Paul’s next statement is powerful. In plain English, Paul is saying that there are people out there lying about his ministry, claiming that Paul is advocating for Gentile Christians to disregard the law. These liars are claiming that Paul is saying, “Let us do evil that good may come.” Paul calls this slander. It’s not true. He isn’t saying this or teaching it, and he never did. Paul says that this idea ought to be condemned, as should the people who are claiming that he is teaching it. However, he also says their sin is not one that can’t be overcome. They can repent. He says, “Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin.” This aligns with Ephesians 2:8-10, where Paul says we ought not boast in our works, for no one’s works are fully righteous and every single one of us is condemned to die. As James points out in James 2:10: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” Psalm 14, which Paul quotes, makes it quite clear that we are all guilty.

Sadly, as Paul quotes Psalm 5:9 and Psalm 140:3, among other references, saying that many false believers have tongues that keep deceiving, which is akin to the poison of snakes that can kill with false teaching, we ought to listen to Paul’s counsel to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:13-15 on how we can escape this heresy: “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” It is the Holy Scriptures, the law and the prophets, which Timothy would have known from his youth, which began before Jesus even came on the scene. It is this Word of God that will make us “wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” If we think, speak, write and act according to the commandments of God, it is proof that we know Jesus and follow Him, and it is a sure way to avoid destruction.

So it is not lost on you, consider yet another criticism that Paul cites from Psalm 14: “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” If we are in Christ, we ought to have a very healthy fear of the Lord, for He is coming to destroy all unrighteousness with fire that proceeds from His mouth. It is those who rebel against the law of God who have no fear of God in their eyes. These believe they are going to be just fine and don’t have to do anything to make it into Heaven. Those who believe this are lost and completely ignore the words of our Messiah Yeshua Himself, when He said in Matthew 10:28: “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Yes, we are to fear God. The word “revere” is not wrong, but it strips away the urgency of what it means to truly follow Jesus. “Do not be haughty but fear,” Paul writes to the Gentile believers in Romans 11:20. Read the whole section in verses 19-23, which makes it clear that we must continue to dwell in God’s goodness, abiding in His commandments, or we too will be “cut off” from salvation. Yet, those who sin can be grafted back in to life through repentance.

As Paul concludes this section, he clarifies that the punishment of death applies only to those who are “under the law,” which specifically refers to those who willfully and unrepentantly violate its precepts. The whole world will be held “accountable to God,” He writes, by the precepts of the law, whether we are keeping it by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, or violating it in rebellion on account of the power of our flesh and the draw of the World. There is no in between. Where is our heart? Do we will to obey, or will to ignore and rebel? The law gives us a knowledge of sin so that we can avoid it, so that we can walk away from it, so that we can do what is right before God. If our heart wills this, then He will help us. However, at the same time, no work of the law can justify us, because as James pointed out in James 2:10, just one violation condemns us to death. It is only by faith in the redeeming act of Yeshua’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead that we can be saved. How much more should we seek to obey Him so that we do not trample the Son of God and consider His sacrifice a cheap thing? (Romans 10:28-29)

Jesus Himself says the same thing as Paul here in a parable in Luke 17:6-10: “So the Lord said, ‘If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” What does it mean to have faith in Jesus? It means that we believe that what He said to us is true, we trust in His completed work, and we trust in His promises, and we do what He said for us to do. If we do what He said for us to do—“if you love me, you will keep my commandments”—we do not get some special prize, for this is what is expected of us. But if we don’t do what is expected of us, how do you think He will respond when He comes in judgment? He will burn up all unrighteousness with the fire that comes out of His mouth. You cannot say you weren’t warned. If you love Jesus, you must have faith in Him and keep the commandments of God. This also is a testimony of two witnesses.

Day 10: “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one. Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.” Romans 3:21-31

As discussed in the previous verses, most important in Paul’s writings are his anchor statements, which from the ancient Greek mean, “May it never become (your understanding).” It is imperative that we do not follow the traditions of the elders, for Jesus rebuked this most when He taught. That goes for the traditions of the Jewish elders and the traditions of the Christian elders, and their errant theological conclusions. We must follow Christ, and Christ alone. We must believe in His Word, and His Word alone. His Word is clear. There is a testimony of two witnesses needed to make it into the Kingdom of Heaven, and it is this destination that I desire more than any treasure, and I will give up absolutely everything to get there to be with my Lord, Yeshua. Paul’s anchor statement in Romans 3:21-31 makes it clear that faith is not just a belief in the mind, but it is also an action, to do the work of the commandments of the Lord that He commanded us. Through faith, God establishes the Law in our hearts. We must fully embrace it, fulfilling it in our lives BECAUSE we have been saved through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To be sanctified is to keep the law with the help of the Holy Spirit, so that we might be glorified. I humbly approach the throne in fear with hope in the Lord Jesus and His Mercy and Grace.

We read in the text that the Lord’s righteousness was revealed apart from the law, meaning that we now have a living example of what the Lord’s law means in Jesus Christ, because He lived it out perfectly when He walked the Earth, just as He had intended it. He asked us to follow Him, to model Him, to do as He did. He gave us a new commandment, to “love one another as I have loved you,” He said. We have His example of what it means to fulfill the commandments, which are God’s love language. And so, we ought to do them as He did them, fulfill them as He fulfilled them. Because His life on Earth as the Son of Man was a new thing, it is a new commandment to follow Him and do what He did. To follow His example in His obedience to God’s law is in fact apart from the law, because it is a living example of what it means to obey the law out of love for God and one another. The Son of Man’s life was witnessed by the law and the prophets because this testimony is needed for the righteousness of God to be fully revealed through Christ. When we believe, we embrace it all, the law, the prophets, and the righteousness displayed by Christ.

As Paul said previously, “there is no partiality with God.” Now He says there is “no distinction” from one person to another, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” On account of this, we all need the salvation that comes through Christ alone and His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. God displayed this gift of His grace publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith, the most perfect sacrifice to end all sacrifice. We are redeemed by His blood alone. No act that we do can redeem us, for His act alone redeems us. He has become our Passover Lamb, and on account of His flawless nature, His righteousness, being crucified for us—His blood spread on the doorpost between Heaven and Earth—the angel of the second death will not take us to the lake of fire for destruction. God “passed over the sins PREVIOUSLY committed,” so that there is no boast except in Him.

And there is no doubt that “a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.” Redeemed. Saved. Sin is forgotten and passed over. By faith, and not by works, we are saved, so that none can boast. This is the same faith that saves both Jews and Greeks, and there is no different path for anyone. We are all saved through Christ, or we die forever without Him. But once saved, we turn to please our savior, to follow Him, to do as He did; not out of blind obedience, but out of love for our savior. Paul asks: “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be!” [May that never become your understanding, Paul writes.] On the contrary, we establish the Law.” Yes brothers and sisters, learning, knowing and doing the law, in the Spirit and Truth of Christ our savior, ought to be our life. This is what it means to follow Christ, for He is the law apart from the law that was written. He lived it, and so must we. He taught it, and so must we. He called people out of sin to repentance so they might be saved by Him to live a different life, and so must we. We must live a life that follows after God’s righteousness, and not our own. In Christ there is life. Outside Christ there is nothing.

Day 11: “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, And whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account.” Is this blessing then on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say, “Faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” How then was it credited? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised; and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while uncircumcised, so that he might be the father of all who believe without being circumcised, that righteousness might be credited to them, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham which he had while uncircumcised.” Romans 4:1-12

Jesus is the savior of the circumcised and the uncircumcised, the Jew and the Gentile. Anyone who believes in Him is afforded His salvation as a free gift, if they accept it. But circumcision is but a sign of the Old Covenant; it is not an act commanded for those coming into the faith. Neither is circumcision commanded for converts in the New Covenant, but it is a gift for those who believe and follow the commandments of God. The Holy Spirit circumcises the heart, cutting away all the sin, doubt, fleshly desire, and death that was there, leaving only the law in its place and a desire to serve God according to His Spirit that is now in us according to the Righteousness of God, which is Jesus Christ. Abraham, who believed God and left his family home, his inheritance in the flesh, and went away to Canaan, a far-away land, acted because God commanded Him to act. It is his action that is the evidence of his belief, without which there would be no belief, and thus, no righteousness.

We read in Hebrews 11:8-10 “By faith Abraham OBEYED when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” “Faith,” we read in Hebrews 11:1, “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” The substance of a thing is that which makes it come into being, and obedience to God is that very substance of the faith. After all, God desires obedience and not sacrifice. To heed is better than the fat of rams. Had Abraham believed, but remained in Assyria, he might have received an inheritance from his fleshly father, but God would have forsaken Him in the Kingdom that is to come.

Abraham’s faith, the one accounted to him as righteousness before his foreskin was circumcised, took action by going out and doing that which his heart believed. And when he got there it was not the land that was promised, and he lived his whole life without an inheritance, but rather as a stranger in a strange land, because the inheritance God promised to Abraham and the inheritance Abraham desired was in the Heavenly Kingdom of God, which awaits all of us who believe and therefore obey the Lord God Jesus Christ. Abraham’s obedience was the proof of his belief (his faith) that was accounted as righteousness. And because of His obedience to God, we can be assured that Abraham will be raised among us on the Last Day, so long as we too believe in our savior and therefore keep the commandments of God.

Now, blessed are we whose lawless deeds are forgiven by the grace of God in the death and resurrection of our Pascal Lamb, but God forbid we test Him by ignoring this grace, or worse, trampling on it. We read quite literally in Hebrews 10:26-31: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Paul writes the same thing in Galatians 2:17-18: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Does Paul make it sound like it’s not possible to fall away? Be aware: It is very possible, and completely up to us. Grace is a glorious gift of God through Christ that none of us deserve, but some of us receive, and fewer of us keep. Yet, without repentance God’s grace is rejected, whether the first time or the 77th time. True Godly repentance means to turn away from those sins we repent of, and to turn toward God instead, and God is righteous and demands righteousness. You say we’re covered by the righteousness of Christ. You speak well. But does Christ cover the sins of the person who willfully ignores His commandments, which He gave us for our good? Certainly not! On the contrary, Christ Himself will burn up such a person on the Last Day and throw Him, with all hypocrites, into the Lake of Fire. Do not steal the fear of God from believers, for by so doing you risk sending them to Hell.

Day 12: “For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made of no effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Romans 4:13-25

On the truth that we are saved by grace through faith and NOT by works is fully agreeable to anyone who reads Scripture and sees its plain words. “Justified” or “redeemed” are alternative words to “saved,” and they mean the same thing. I believe that we are saved by grace and not by works with all of my heart, for this is what Scripture makes clear. Paul is emphasizing this point in Romans because it was not well known in the Judaism of his day, and the idea that we would be saved by the blood of Messiah Yeshua was not an expected fulfillment of prophesy, even though it is clearly foretold throughout the Torah and the Prophets. The story of Joseph is a perfect example of a living, historical Torah parable of Yeshua’s first coming, and God does this frequently throughout Scripture. The story of Abraham being willing to sacrifice his “only son” Isaac is another. Many did not have eyes to see it or ears to hear it.

Even the apostles reacted negatively to the idea, initially, that Christ would die for them. Look at Peter in Matthew 16:21-23: ”From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, ‘Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!’ But He turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.’” But Peter came around eventually, as did Paul himself; for he used to persecute Christians before Jesus appeared to him and gave him the gift of grace. Without grace, there isn’t a single one of us who could be saved, whether Jew or Greek.

Before and after the time of Christ, we are called to be obedient to the law as a result of our salvation. The law was never meant for justification, but was meant for our good, to show us what God desires for us and what He desires for us not to do. Abraham’s righteousness came by his faith in the promises of God; whether the promise of an eternal inheritance first, the promise of a son in his old age by his wife Sarah, next, and the promise that he would have descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven, last, despite God’s apparent request to sacrifice Isaac in the same place where the Temple would be built.. Hebrews 11:17-19 reads, “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.”

Yet, God had never commanded human sacrifice, and in fact He commanded against it. “Whoever sheds human blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made mankind.” (Genesis 9:6). While Abraham perceived one thing about what God had asked Him to do, His faith making Him righteous, God had intended Abraham to consecrate Isaac, to make Him holy and devote Him to a life dedicated to serving the Lord. God corrected Abraham’s error on account of his faith, because God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. God said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Gen. 22:12) Thus, the promise that Isaac would be the heir of the world was not through the law, but rather through the righteousness of faith. And to be faithful is to be obedient to God.

Paul uses this story to illustrate a mystery; namely, that through Christ, the middle wall of separation that was used in the Temple to separate believing Jews and believing Gentiles had been torn down. Whether people who grew up knowing the law or people who did not, whether Jew or Gentile, all of us could follow in Abraham’s example and believe unto the Lord Jesus for our salvation. Thus, we are all sons of Abraham if we believe in Jesus through faith. And as Jesus said, in John 8:39, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.” Yes, Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to Him as righteousness. We too must “believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification.” Abraham was fully convinced that what God promised Him would come to pass, and we too must be fully convinced of our salvation in Christ.

But we must not waiver in unbelief by walking away from the commands that God has given us, but rather fulfill them, so we are not under the law, but under grace. Read Hebrews 6:1-3. Because we are justified by our faith, and we all know that we are saved in this way, it is time for us to “leave the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ; let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God…,” among a handful of other principles. These are elementary principles that too many Christians rest on, and they do not mature in their faith, but rather remain in this milk of the Word. To follow Christ, we must not rest, but we must “go on to perfection.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 explains how this is done; namely, “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”

We get virtue from the law, knowledge from the law, self-control through the Holy Spirit once we have knowledge of the law, perseverance through the Holy Spirit, also, for without God’s help we will fail, but godliness comes from the Holy Spirit’s interaction with us, guiding us according to the knowledge of the law that we have, with all conviction on our hearts to persevere in what is good and true. Godliness, by necessity, leads to brotherly kindness, and ultimately love, because the one who has Christ dwelling in Him, helping him understanding how God’s law ought to be applied in every circumstance, cannot help but love everyone he encounters with a sacrificial love and a burning desire to bring that person knowledge of the Truth. God’s commandments are what are true, and Christ in us helps us keep them. The law is only a curse to those who violate it; for those who keep it in the light of Christ, it is a blessing.

If one languishes in the infancy of the faith, Hebrews 6:4-6 explains how one risks falling away, and it could be permanent. We cannot crucify again the Son of God, for He died once for our sins. To live in sin, or to ignore God’s commandments, is to put Christ and His grace to an open shame. Plainly: it is blasphemy. Paul writes in Gal. 2:17: “Christ is NOT a minister of sin.” And the elementary principles of “repentance” and “faith toward God” for salvation are just the beginning of our walk. We must move forward, as Abraham did, and fully embrace God’s will for our lives out of a pure and complete love for Him. As Jesus said to us directly, “if you love me, you will keep my commandments.” John explains they are “not difficult,” nor are they a burden. He also says if you don’t keep them, you are “a liar and the truth is not in you.” It’s time for many Christians to mature in their faith and move beyond the elementary principles, for if they do not do that, they risk the second death.

Day 13: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Romans 5:1-11

There is a peace that comes from being saved by God’s grace through Christ. The Hebrew word “shalom” reflects this Truth best. Shalom doesn’t just mean “peace;” it also means “wholeness” in God through Christ. There is nothing lacking, and everything is that ought to be. There is a level of contentment that is needed if we are in Christ.  Without contentment, our faith is lacking. There is something hindering our relationship with God; something the Holy Spirit is telling us to address as we’re being sanctified. Prayer and fasting can help us to recognize and eliminate what is hindering us, and with faith the grace of God can fully restore us and change our hearts. Thus, when we are in Christ, there is no grief, no worry, no doubt, no pain, no suffering, even if as a man or woman we would normally feel these things in our circumstances. This is how men can be tortured, crucified, or imprisoned and sing songs of praise to Jesus. We need the shalom of Christ to live forever with Him.

Day 14: “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned— for until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come. But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:12-21

When Saul took matters into his own hands and sacrificed to God, not waiting for Samuel to come and sacrifice on behalf of Israel as God had commanded, Saul sinned. Later, Saul was proud of himself, thinking that by keeping back some of the best of the herds to sacrifice to the Lord, he was bringing even more glory to God, but God had commanded Saul to destroy every living creature among the Amalekites. When Samuel arrived, he rebuked Saul, but Saul insisted that he was doing what was righteous by God. We read in Revelation 22:18-19, “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” This directly applies to all of prophesy in Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, and it applies to Saul in our story.

Saul, adding to the Word of God that was commanded to Him, received the plagues of Deuteronomy 28. The Holy Spirit of God was taken from him and an evil spirit came to torment him, according to 1 Samuel 16:14-15. Samuel articulates the Truth we all need to take home to our hearts today in 1 Samuel 15:22: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” Had Saul obeyed the voice of the Lord, the Bible would read very differently, but Saul had the sin nature of Adam, the flesh nature, and he gave into it, rather than dwell in the Holy Spirit that had been given to him. For this, he lost his salvation and fell away from the Lord unto death, which the Word later tells us was not just a physical death, but also the second death (2 Samuel 7:15).

Before the law was articulated to Moses by the Word of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, the law was known as the very nature of God; His love language. Noah knew to bring 7 pairs of clean animals and 2 pairs of unclean animals on the ark, because he had a relationship with God and knew His eternal law. The law was “imputed,” or explained, by Moses, but it was known beforehand. He didn’t need to read Leviticus 11. And so Adam also had the law, which was articulated quite simply that He ought to obey the Lord and not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden. It was a food law. But it was also a law to test Adam’s obedience, to give him that free will that we all receive, so God would know whether Adam had a heart to obey Him or not. Adam’s heart was one of flesh, and in the weakness of his flesh, despite his personal relationship with God in the Garden, he chose to pursue his own way instead of God’s way. Yes, he was deceived, but he chose to give into this deception, and thus fell unto his death.

God Himself would come in the flesh at a time when it was clear no man would live a blameless life. Even David, whom we read was “a man after God’s own heart,” could not live a perfect life without sin. He sinned in the matter of Uriah the Hittite, but even still he repented and was restored as we read in Psalm 51. There is no man without sin; not a single one (Ecclesiastes 7:20, Proverbs 20:9,  Romans 3:9). But the Son of David lived a sinless life, because He was also the Son of God; He was God who was begotten into flesh to dwell among us and literally show us an example of what it means to keep God’s law perfectly, for this is what it means to be righteous. And it is because His righteousness was sacrificed for us on a tree, and He became a curse on our behalf—He who was completely righteous—, we can look upon Him as the one-time sacrifice that we need to be redeemed. His blood is what paid for our sins. We must accept this gift that was given to receive it.

And if we accept this gift, there is no other sacrifice needed for our sins to be forgiven. But what does the Lord require of those He saves through His blood? The answer is not nothing, for we know full well by many testimonies throughout Scripture that “all things are established on a testimony of two or three,” and thus we also know that “faith without works is dead.” We know that the Saints who persevere until the end “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Thus, Christ’s sacrifice is the gift for us, and we ought to be eternally grateful for this gift, for without it we are lost in our sins, but it is because of this gift that we ought to follow Him and serve Him all the remaining days of our lives. “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.” God has promised to write the Spirit of His law on our hearts to help us, and for those who believe and act on that faith through obedience, the love of God dwells within them all the more as each day passes. This is what it means to live in Christ.

For those who live in the flesh increase in their sin all the more, for they are fully incapable of living righteously without Christ. But as sinners fall deeper into the pits of their own making, grace becomes sweeter for them, and Christ indeed came to call sinners to repentance. But repentance is what brings upon us the free gift of salvation, and we know from Paul’s conclusion in Chapter 5 that “grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Grace does not reign with sin, but it increases for those turning from their sin. Grace reigns through righteousness. Let me put it another way: Grace prevails when we turn toward God’s commandments to keep them, and this is what leads us in sanctification toward eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. For we know that our Lord said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” When asked which ones, He tells us: the ones given by the Father beforehand, the ones recorded by Moses. The Torah lives in Him, and He will judge by it’s precepts when He comes. Turn, and live.


Day 15: Final notes for Chapters 1-5:

Ephesians 2:8-10 says the crux of Romans 1-5 in fewer words:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

We sin unto death, repent unto life in Christ through grace by faith and not by works, and then in our faithfulness by the power of the Holy Spirit, we increase in the righteousness of Christ (not of our own heart) through knowledge that leads to wisdom and discernment and obedience to God’s commandment (Godliness), which ultimately leads to brotherly love and a new man or woman in Christ. We do this as preparation for our inheritance in the Kingdom of God, which is our hope.

The devotional writer is correct to point out 2 Peter 3, for Paul’s writing is confusing and has given many the wrong impression, but with the Holy Spirit, the Truth elegantly emerges.

I was at a pastor’s prayer breakfast yesterday and I overheard two pastors say they preach the Gospel of Paul. This is an error, and Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians 3:1-11, where Paul himself teaches that his letters are the “milk” of the Word and “not … solid food.” I wrote about this a few days ago, citing Hebrews 6:1-4, where we must progress beyond these elementary principles Paul teaches in Romans and move on to the greater knowledge of God, which leads to a life of fullness in Christ. We must fully embrace the Torah and Prophets that He gave us to unveil the full Truth and understanding of what it means to follow Him by the Holy Spirit, using His Word to us in the New Testament, in particular, to fully grasp what it means for us in our lives. Paul is a fellow worker, and while his words may be useful for new Christians, and built upon the foundation of Christ, we must mature beyond them, and he tells us this himself.

… Paul writes, “For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?” We do not follow the “Gospel of Paul,” but we follow the Gospel of Christ, which teaches us salvation through grace by faith and faithfulness to the law of God, which is Christ’s righteousness, from that point forward, with the help of the Holy Spirit. As we come together, we ought to “exhort one another and stir each other up to love and good works,” for this is what it means to follow Christ. Paul is a fellow worker with us in Christ, and His words are eloquent when properly understood, and He certainly helps us understand how the Scripture aligns with the finished work of Christ, but we follow Christ and it is His Gospel that we must learn, do and then teach to others, for only in Christ is there life, and Jesus asked us to “follow Him,” which means we cannot sit here idle. We must go out and produce fruit for the Kingdom.

——

Part 2 of 3, 2022 Commentary on the Book of Romans
Romans 6, Romans 7, Romans 8, Romans 9, Romans 10, Romans 11

Day 1: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:1-14

Paul has been teaching us two of the elementary principles of the faith so far in Romans, which we can discern from Hebrews 6:1-4—namely, “repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.” Now Paul is now going to drop an atomic bomb on those who say CONCEPTUAL FAITH is enough to enter the Kingdom of God, and to be clear: it is DEFINITIVELY NOT. In Romans 6:1-4, Paul clarifies that we cannot continue to live in sin once we have been saved by grace; but rather, we must turn toward obedience to God’s commandments in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Despite the heretical teaching this day to the contrary, the law itself is NOT a curse, but consistent with Scripture everywhere throughout is that the law brings a curse to those who disobey it. On the other hand, it brings great blessings to those who obey it in Spirit and Truth. Just read Deut. 28 to confirm.

Thus, if we are saved by grace through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Son of God—and we are—then we cannot continue in sin, and as we know from 1 John 3:4, “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” There couldn’t be a clearer definition of sin than this, and Scripture must interpret Scripture to be valid. “Lawlessness,” in Greek “antinomianism,” literally means to be against or in disagreement or rebellion to the law of God. Jesus Himself makes it clear that this is true, for in Matthew 5 He says that the law and the prophets, the Old Testament, will continue to be valid law to live by until Heaven and Earth pass away, which clearly hasn’t happened yet. In Mark 7, He condemns the Pharisees specifically because they have “[lain] aside the commandment of God, [and] hold [to] the tradition of men.” In other words, they put the words of people LIKE John Calvin above the words of Jesus Himself. This is a grievous sin known as blasphemy.

If we have been baptized into the death of Jesus Christ by water, as Scripture confirms, then our old self, the one that likes to eat pork, or cut the lawn on Saturday, which is the Sabbath, or celebrate church the way our traditions call for, instead of the way God calls for, all that has to die. This is a narrow road and the world will hate you for it. They will call you a hypocrite and persecute you and tell you that you have abandoned the grace of God. But that could not be further from the Truth. In fact, you fully embrace grace and live in the light of Christ when you turn away from your own wicked ways and instead turn toward the righteousness of God, which is defined by His law and the prophets and interpreted by Jesus and the Apostles in the New Testament. To be baptized by the Holy Spirit, we first have to repent, which means that our heart must turn toward God to obey His commandments. Jesus says this three times and three different ways in John 14, and again in John 15. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love,” Jesus said.

In brief, your old self and your old life has to die. You have to fully give it up and change completely to follow the Lord. There is no doubt that the Holy Spirit helps you, for Jesus has said this specifically, but you must be the actor doing this. You have to put to death your old self, your old ways, your old thoughts and your old traditions. You need to come in to the newness of life, and as we read about in Acts 15, attend the synagogue (church) every Sabbath (Saturday) to learn the laws of Moses. Upon your education in this “perfect law of liberty,”as James calls it, the Holy Spirit will convict you and help you to keep the law in “spirit and in truth.” For those who say “faith only,” I say you blaspheme, for James tells us over again, “But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?” We cannot be fools, wise in our own eyes, assuming the Spirit is leading us without the knowledge of God, but actually following after the desires of our flesh and working on Saturday against God’s commandment, and eating things that He has called abominable. How is it of God to rebel against His eternal Word? In short: It isn’t.

Paul says we must walk in the “newness of life,” led by the Spirit, to do His will. We obey the commandments of God, the law of the Old Testament, for three reasons: 1) We love Yeshua and the grace that He has saved us with and want to follow Him, and 2) To build our relationship with God and become closer to Him every single day as He sanctifies us with His Holy Spirit, and 3) Because Jesus asked us to do this repeatedly, and every New Testament writer confirms this, even Paul. “Our old self” must be literally “crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is free from sin.” That doesn’t mean that we can’t sin. That means that we turn away from it and pursue Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and this is something that we must practice, and it something that requires our endurance, so that we are not disqualified.

Critically, Paul writes about this very thing at the end of 1 Corinthians 9: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” If we obtain the prize, so to speak, simply with conceptual faith, then why exactly are we running so that we may obtain it? Why would we need to, as Paul writes, “discipline my body and bring it into subjection?” Why is Paul concerned about being “disqualified?” It is precisely because we must die to ourselves and give up ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, as Jesus said repeatedly, in order to follow Him and be His disciple.

Paul continues, “if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” To live with Christ is to obey God’s commandments, for that is what it means to follow Him. We need to adopt His life, His ways, and His example, to do exactly what He did, in every single way, even up to the cross itself. This is what it means to be a man after God’s own heart, rather than a man after our own heart, seeking our own ways. For we know that “There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12). It is our way, the way that seems right to us, that we need to put to death in Christ. We cannot live in this way any longer. To live, we must live like Christ in every single way. This is a very easy path and a light yoke, for He has shown us how to do it; to “love one another as I have loved you,” as He said. Our flesh rebels against this with every bone in our body, but in Christ, we have power over the flesh, and when we surrender to Him, He helps us.

Death can no longer be a master over us when we live in Christ according to God’s commandments. The life that we live, we live to God. We are now dead to sin in Christ, and thus alive to God in Christ Jesus. If sin was no longer a concern for the believer, Paul would not say this next: “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” What is sin? Sin is lawlessness. What is righteousness to God? Righteousness to God means obeying the law of God in the exact same manner in which Jesus obeyed it, for just as He fulfilled the law flawlessly during His life, so too must we flawlessly obey the law by following Him.

Finally, if we truly are in Christ, then “sin shall not be master over you.” This is because “you are not under the law but under grace.” If you are under grace, then you no longer sin but obey, because that is what it means to love Jesus. If you are under the law, that means you are practicing lawlessness, and thus are subject to the curses that God has put on the one who disobeys. To be under the law means to violate it. Paul’s whole exhortation here is to obey the law in Christ, so that we are no longer subject to its punishment. You can travel all over the country in freedom when you drive the speed limit, but if you exceed it by 20 mph, you are going to be pulled over and accused under the law, and likely fined or worse. Likewise, you are free when you follow the “perfect law of liberty” in Christ, but when you rebel against it or disregard the law, you are going to be punished under it. Christ does not save the one who practices lawlessness. There is a testimony of two. The Saints of God keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Both are needed, as Scripture repeats consistently over and over again. Ignore this to your own peril.

Day2:  “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:15-23

Proverbs 22:7 says, “The rich rules over the poor, And the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” If you have a mortgage, you are a slave. If you have any other debt at all, you are a slave. 1 Corinthians 7:21-24 gives us the remedy: “Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called.” In other words, our concern is not our debt—making mortgage payments or the like—for God knows what you need and will provide it (perhaps not how we expect). Our role is to put Christ first in our lives and to do His will, and this brothers and sisters, is a choice that we make with our free will, whether saved or not.

If we are not saved, then we are slaves to the sin that we all commit, and we clearly know that unrepentant sin leads to death. If we are saved, justified by the blood of Christ, we must then choose to be slaves to Christ’s righteousness, which is the law of God, otherwise, we can be caught up in the sins of our flesh and become one who practices lawlessness, and it matters not whether we claim to know Christ or not, we will be destroyed among those who “practice lawlessness.” There would be no need for Paul to exhort us to endure in the faith if this was not so. If you reject the Word of God, you reject Christ. If you reject the legitimacy of God and say the law is done away with, you reject Christ. To say the law is no longer valid is to say that Christ never rose from the dead. I believe in the law and the prophets because I believe in Jesus Christ and His resurrection, and I choose to make myself a slave to His righteousness, and not my own, on account of the grace He has given me.

In Matthew 5:17-18, Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” In Matthew 24:35, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” It is abundantly clear that the law of God is eternal, and it will never be done away with.

Do you believe that works can keep you out of the Kingdom of God? If your answer is “no,” you’re wrong. Read Matthew 25:31-46. Not only do works keep you out of the kingdom of God, but works get you in there, too, because as James says, “Faith without works is dead.” Thus, we must choose to present ourselves as slaves to righteousness, living in the grace that has set us free in Christ.

Addendum answering questions about Galatians:
Those who practice lawlessness, after being saved, will lose their salvation. Works, while not necessary for salvation, are necessary to make it into the Kingdom. Upon salvation, it is incumbent on us to turn toward Christ with all of our heart, die to our old selves, and take on Christ, who is the law. If we reject the law, we reject Christ. If we embrace the law, we embrace Christ. How can you say that obedience to the commandments is anything other than love for Jesus? He used those words exactly; namely, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” The antithesis of this is, if you do not love me, you will not keep my commandments, or you will say they don’t matter. On the Last Day, Jesus will burn up all unrighteousness, and that includes those who say “Lord, Lord,” thinking they’re Christians, but disregard the law, and thus practice lawlessness. To embrace Christ, we must fully embrace the law with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the love of God…

Regarding Galatians, the whole letter is about circumcision, and the physical variety of this is not a requirement of the law, but a sign of the first covenant. The sign of the new covenant is circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit, and Scripture is clear about this. Galatians is a book about this change.

The law is not a means of the flesh, it is the Word of God. The law is Spirit, and it reflects His will for us as well as His love for us. Galatians 3:3 refers to circumcision alone. Galatians 5:3-4 again has to do with circumcision. Paul’s point here is that you cannot be justified (or saved) by the act of circumcision, and if you think that you can be, then you had better keep the whole law perfectly. Nobody can do that, and we know as Scripture repeats that if you stumble in one area of the law, you are worthy of death. This is why the salvation that we receive by Christ is not only needed but essential for us to make it into the Kingdom of God.

We do not trust in our works for salvation, we trust in Jesus alone for salvation. We are not worthy of it. However, if we are found sinners after being saved, Christ is not a minister of sin. (Gal. 2:17). This means that yes, we are saved alone by grace through faith and not by works, yet if you think you can go on sinning after this salvation, you are deceived. Instead, you must turn toward God and obey His law with all of your heart, soul, mind & strength. Yes, you’ll stumble. Yes, Jesus covers this, but if your heart isn’t to fully obey, then you have not fully turned toward Christ. And what does He say about those who are lukewarm in Rev. 3? He will spit them out of His mouth.

Read my full commentary on Galatians; it shows in detail how the book has been grossly misused by antinomian Christians to turn people away from Christ, who is the law that became flesh. When we keep the law, we show our love for Him. When we don’t, we show our enmity with Him. The choice belongs to us all.

Day 3: “Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband. So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.” Romans 7:1-13

Paul so badly wants to explain the glory that we have in Christ, for in Christ we are forgiven of our sins, and this indeed is glorious. In his passion for Jesus, he presents a lengthy metaphor that can be taken the wrong way, if it is not read carefully. He is careful to put several anchor statements in the writing, to make sure we don’t misinterpret, but still many do, including our devotional writer, who contradicts himself with various contradictory statements.

Paul writes: Is the law sin? May it never be! The law, rather, defines sin. But it does more than this, it also defines righteousness. Not only this, “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.” Paul takes this one step further: “Did that which is good,” he asks, referring to the law, “become a cause of death for me? May it never be.” Rather it was sin that lead to death; sin that was defined by the law.

So what was it then that died with Christ, if it wasn’t the law? It was our sin nature; our fleshly propensity to violate the law against our desire to keep it. We were married to the world prior to our marriage to Christ, and we had to put our flesh to death before we could marry Christ. Now what does this have to do with the law? Only that the law once condemned us when we lived in the flesh, but now it blesses us because we fully follow it. Without knowledge of the law, we simply cannot know what sin is, and thus could die in this ignorance. It is a knowledge of the law that leads to conviction, which Paul here calls death. And upon that death, we are raised up through Christ by His blood into a newness of life, so that now the commandment shines a bright light on what is sinful so that through Christ we can walk away from that sin. The practice of sin leads to abundantly more sin unto death, while the practice of righteousness in Christ leads to an upward call toward full obedience to the law, with the help of the Holy Spirit through Christ’s salvational grace.

Addendum, responding to the false statement, as follows: “In Christ, we are free from the burden brought by the law. Instead if we will listen to the Holy Spirit within us we fulfill the law without it being an external taskmaster:”

If you do not read the law and have knowledge of the law, it is impossible for the Spirit to lead you according to the law. You need to be a player, or He won’t come to the game. Scripture repeats this many, many times, but here’s one example from 2 Chronicles 15:2: “And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” 2 Peter 1:5-7 makes it clear that we must have skin in the game for the Spirit to come and help us: “giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” If we do not have knowledge of Torah, the Spirit has nothing to build His direction on, and you will be lost. You must read, understand, and do the law for the Spirit to help you keep it.

As we read in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.” If we think the law is a burden, we do not know Christ. John says this, not me, in 1 John 2:4: “He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

The confusion comes in when we consider the oral law recorded in the Talmud by the Jewish Rabbis. This is what Jesus refers to as the “tradition of the elders.” These are the heavy burdens that the Pharisees heap up, but are not able to keep. These are the mountains that they hang on the strings of Scripture. Jesus said to cut off the mountains, but keep the strings, for the Torah itself, the law, is life everlasting. And He said so Himself quite directly in John 12:50: “And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Day 4: “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.” Romans 7:14-25

Paul says, “I know that the law is Spiritual,” this is because God is Spirit and so is Christ, before He came in the flesh. He has returned and sits as Spirit on the throne of God, but is visible in His new spiritual body, which we will all take on on the Last Day (1 Corinth. 15).

Read this carefully: The law, the written letter as it was given to be understood, is Spiritual. Sadly, those without the Holy Spirit took the letter and hung oral tradition on it that is not at all commanded by God. But Jesus came to clarify that only Torah is the law of God, and this is what we ought to follow, along with the prophets who interpret it. We know that the Old and New Testament writers were anointed prophets who interpreted Torah and thus help us to understand its meaning, without the fleshly interpretation of men who add to it and confuse us.

Paul says, “I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good.” You cannot call the law a burden, for anything that is “good,” is not a burden, but is from God. Isaiah writes, “woe to those who call good evil, and evil good.”  

Paul continues by discussing our fleshly nature, which wars against the Holy Spirit in us. We are given a choice every single day to either obey God or obey our flesh. How do we know what choice to make? The law tells us, and the Spirit helps us interpret it. When we falter, if our heart is to be with the Lord, He will help correct, redirect, and forgive us. When we falter in rebellion, we risk quenching the Holy Spirit and falling away from Christ. If this continues into the “seat of scoffers,” as Psalm 1 explains, there is no second crucifixion of the Lord to save us as we read in Hebrews 10.

Paul says, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.” Do you do this? If you do not, then you do not know Christ. John says this, not me, in 1 John 2:4: “He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” As Paul says here, He is copying His Master, Jesus, who said quite directly in John 12:50: “And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has told me.”

Unfortunately for Paul, and for all of us, the law of the flesh (the law of sin and death) is constantly pulling at him to disobey, disregard and rebel against the “perfect law of liberty,” which is Torah. “Wretched man that I am!,” and I hope we all have this heart as we approach the throne of God with a humble and contrite heart.

Thank God we have Jesus Christ our Lord, who rescues us with His blood and by the power of His Holy Spirit directs us according to the Torah, which we must read, know and understand according to the Spirit of God, so that we can serve the law of God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Day 5: “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Romans 8:1-17

It’s imperative we read Paul’s writing carefully in Romans 8:1-17, as in all of his writing. “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Many take this verse out of context to indicate that you cannot lose your salvation, but this is not possibly the interpretation, for the whole rest of this section explains how the Spirit wars against the Flesh, and one of the two will win out in each of our lives. Thus, any one of us, even if we are saved, can fall back into the flesh and practice lawlessness. Though we cry out, “Lord, Lord,” He will say “depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.” And so how do we parse this? There is no condemnation if we are IN Christ. That means, if His Holy Spirit is living within us, and we are living IN Him, according to His commandments. As we just read in the previous verses, there is a law of the Spirit, and a law of sin and death, which is also known as the law of the flesh. We must choose which law to follow each day. “Choose this day whom you will serve…” It is each and every day that we must “renew the Spirit of our minds.”

Paul writes quite directly: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” By this we know that A) If we walk in the Spirit, we keep the law of God and it is our objective to please God by doing so. B) It is impossible for us to keep the law if our mind is of the flesh, but if our mind is of the Spirit, we can keep the law of God because the Spirit helps us. C) We did not earn this gift, but Christ gave it for free in His grace through His death and resurrection on the cross. D) Just because this gift is free, does not mean we take it and put it on a shelf to look at, but rather we must use the gift every day to help us live in the Spirit and overcome the flesh. E) If we do not use the power of the free gift of grace and the Holy Spirit (Christ in us), we can “quench the [Holy] Spirit” and fall into the sins of the flesh. We do not want to be hostile toward God or His law, but if we are, we know that we are of the flesh.

In the flesh—the state of all men and women who do not have the knowledge of his coming—we can not keep the law of God. It’s impossible. And violating the law of God is what defines “sin.” And so, this is why Jesus came; He “condemned this sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us” who walk “according to the Spirit.” He gave us the opportunity, but we are the ones doing the fulfilling as we follow Jesus, with the help of His Holy Spirit. You see, “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, IF INDEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD DWELLS IN YOU.” And if this is the case, “we ARE UNDER OBLIGATION … TO LIVE … BY THE SPIRIT,” so we can be “putting to death the deeds of the body,” or in other words, the sins of the flesh that lead to death. If Jesus had not come in the flesh, then we would have died in our sins without an opportunity for redemption.

Paul would not make this a two-part equation if there were not two witnesses to the structure of the faith, but there are, and Scripture verifies that we are saved by grace through faith and not by works so no one can boast so that we can then follow Christ with a clean slate and keep His commandments. Both require our consent and action, for “faith without works is dead.” You see, “if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin”(all flesh must die as punishment for sin), “yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness” (our soul will sleep when we die, but be raised on the Last Day and given an incorruptible body so that we can be with Christ forever.) It is BECAUSE of righteousness that our “spirit is alive.” This is the righteousness of Christ, which means the law of God lived out in our life with His help. God will give us life if we have His Spirit in us, helping us walk away from sin and death, and toward the righteousness of the law that Jesus clarified for us through His example.

If we have faith in Jesus and are saved on account of His blood, and if we have His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, then we are adopted sons of the Father and we will be glorified with Him on the Last Day, when Jesus comes again on the clouds to judge the living and the dead. We are heirs of God, and the place Jesus went away to prepare for us will be ours forevermore: this is our inheritance in the Kingdom of God. We can cry out “Abba,” in the name of Yeshua, our King, our Lord, our God, who is our Mediator, and ask Him to please work out His will through us so that everything we do is His will, and not our own. We should expect to suffer in this life, because if we are in the Spirit, our life should be completely alien to everyone in the world around us. People of the flesh do not like different, and thus they will persecute, kill and destroy anything that doesn’t look like them. Are we different enough to suffer persecution? If not, then we need to check our faith and make sure it aligns with God’s law, and the Holy Spirit will help us keep it, and He will help us suffer, also. It’s all temporary until He comes, and this is our hope.

Day 6: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” Romans 8:18-30

We are in the wilderness wandering around being tested, for it is the purpose of this life to choose God and serve Him, and turn our back on the world, the flesh and anything else in this life that tempts us to worship it besides God. Being 43 and American, it’s hard to say that I’ve suffered, but as Brother Yun wrote in his book, “the Heavenly Man,” he would rather suffer the physical tortures of prison in Asia for preaching the Gospel than the psychological persecutions and great deceptions of the American church. And frankly, I think that if I live long enough through the coming tribulation, there will be plenty of physical persecution to come. I don’t think we will compare our stripes in Heaven, for to suffer at all in this life is to suffer for Christ, and like Christ, we will be glorified with Him on the Last Day if we endure through it all and give all glory to God. “The earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God,” those of us who have been adopted into His family through Christ.

When Paul writes “creation was subjected to futility,” we might read Solomon’s Ecclesiastes where He writes, “all is vanity.” But Solomon rightly illuminates the purpose of life as we all ought to understand in Ecclesiastes 12:13-14: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.  For God will bring every work into judgment, Including every secret thing, Whether good or evil.” We read the same thing in Revelation 14:12: “Here is the patience of the Saints; here are they who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” And Jesus subjected creation in hope, delivering all who call on His name from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” We witness the birth pangs and the labors of the Earth, and Jesus taught us to expect more intensity and greater frequency as the Last Day approaches, just as a woman in labor, for the Earth is about to give birth to her dead.

We know that as creation groans and labors, we have the first fruits of the Spirit, and with His Spirit Christ leads us according to His perfect law of liberty. He acknowledges that we too groan ourselves, eagerly WAITING for the adoption, the redemption of our body. This adoption has not happened yet, but it does indeed happen on the Last Day. As we suffer in this life, we ought to “rejoice always” in the hope that we have in Christ, and we must eagerly wait for the day He comes with perseverance, because yes, it is possible for us to fall away. It’s going to get harder and harder as we get into the Last Days, and only by the power of the Holy Spirit in us will be be preserved through it. As Americans, we are not prepared for what is coming, unless we are in Christ, who prepares us for the hour of our suffering. Even if we are blessed without such an end in this life, we must persevere in our faith by obeying God in everything we say and do. This is impossible without the Spirit, but everything is possible with God.

Whether we suffer or not, we must do the work that Christ asked us to do, to go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them the commandments of God, regardless of any pushback or persecution that might result. God will work everything together for good according to His purposes when we love Him and keep His commandments. God’s great desire for all of us He has created is for us to know Him, and He has designed a perfect plan for all of us to be with Him from the very beginning. We were made in the image of His Son, Yeshua, and therefore He wants us to be be like His Son, Yeshua, to follow Him in all of His ways, to love Him and keep His commandments, to trust in Him and His promises. This is a choice we must individually make.

Yes, those He predestined to follow Christ, He called, and those He called, He justified, and those He justified, He will glorify on the Last Day. The hope is there for us to be with Him forever, and this is His will for us. His will is perfect, and His will is full of love for us. However, He also gave us free will, and thus it is up to us to take the cup that He gives us to accept the New Covenant in Christ. It is up to us to then live up to our end of the covenant and follow Him, doing His will while He helps us. It is up to us to make the call every single day, for God has said repeatedly, “choose this day whom you will serve.” Do you serve Christ? There ought to be evidence of that in your works, but more than this; there ought to be evidence within your heart. God can change and perfect all of us with His Holy Spirit, and it is His will to do so, but He will not abide with the one who practices lawlessness. There is no predestination to be saved or not, only the will of God that we choose life; this is what He has predestined, and He predestined our victory in Christ. The choice is still up to you. Choose life.

Day 7: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39

The preponderance of the evidence in Scripture makes it quite clear that the saved Christian can lose their salvation by their own actions, but God doesn’t want this to happen, and frankly, neither do I. Even if we do fall away, God still desires that we repent and wants us to come back to Him, but it is quite clear that if we fall away into lawlessness after being saved, and remain in this status, He will have no mercy on us on the Last Day, but we will be destroyed. Now, many followers of Calvin (not Jesus) will say that these people were never saved to begin with; perhaps even that God didn’t predestine them for salvation, but these interpretations are not consistent with the whole of Scripture. Hanging on Romans 8:31-30 and one or two other verses taken out of context does not sound doctrine make. First, I’m going to explain my interpretation of these verses. Next, how Scripture shows quite clearly that you can lose your salvation.

First off, if God is for us, who can be against us? This is a true statement. But is God for those who are lawless? No, He is not. In fact, Jesus Himself says he will say to Christians who confess His name, cast out demons in His name and do signs and wonders in His name that He never knew them when they “practice lawlessness.” We know from Paul’s other writing that you cannot confess Jesus is the savior unless you have the Spirit of God. You can’t cast out demons unless your name is written in the  book of life. You can’t do any wonders without the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. We know from Jesus’s own words that if we love Him, we will keep His commandments, and then He will send His Spirit into us. No one can cast out demons or do signs and wonders without the Spirit of God, and no one has the Spirit of God without salvational faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, these whom Jesus talks about in Matthew 7 were saved, but then they fell away. This is a warning to us so we don’t fall away as described.

Yes, God delivered Christ over for our sins, and He has promised to give us all things. These are elementary principles of the faith. In fact, there is nothing that can take this promise away from us, not death, not life, not angels, not principalities, not anything present, future, no powers, no height, no depth, nor any other created thing. Nothing outside of ourselves can separate us from the love of God, and even still, God will love us through our falling away and try to bring us back. If we have faith and obey God’s commandments, we are assured God’s love and His promises for all of eternity. However, if we turn away from God and follow after our own heart, if we practice lawlessness rather than righteousness, then despite God’s love for us and His desire for our salvation, He will cast us out. He will not abide with the lawless, nor will He accept the rebellious. There are too many verses to cite that repeat this Scriptural fact. Who is responsible for this falling away? You are—if you fall—and only you.

Yes, Christ intercedes for us. He covers our sins. He forgives them. He loves us and knocks on our hearts all the day long for us to open to Him and let Him in, but we have to do the opening. Nothing separates us from His love, but us. We have to let Him in. And then we need to grow in our relationship with Him by learning His ways and doing them, because we love Him and want to please Him. If you don’t do this, but rely on your own heart, Scripture is quite clear that you are not going to make it. Consider the parable of the Sower in Luke 8 carefully, for we have the advantage of Yeshua interpreting this for us, and many of the people following Him did not get this luxury. The parable clearly shows how it is possible to lose your salvation if you are not found producing fruit for the Kingdom of God when He comes. …

… The Word of God falls on the ears of some, who don’t receive it because the devil does not allow them. These are not saved, but reject the Word. The word is received by others, who believe and are joyful, but they don’t move beyond the elementary principles of the Word (see Hebrews 6:1-4). When they are tested in their faith, they fall away, despite their salvation, because they do not have depth of understanding and the Sprit cannot help those who do not fully embrace the commandments of God. Others are saved and begin to follow, but then the persecution they face or the things of the world prevent them from giving everything to the Lord and putting Him first. These too don’t make it, because they have chosen another God besides Yeshua. Only those who receive the Word, believe in Christ for salvation, and then keep His commandments and thus bear fruit in their lives, year after year, with perseverance, will make it into the Kingdom.

Here’s what is true: “Your salvation is locked in with Christ.” What is false: “You don’t need to obey God to keep it.” It is very important to recognize, that once you have been saved in Christ by His grace, the Devil is going to try and win you back to his condemnation. He goes around like a roaring lion, seeking believers to devour (1 Peter 5:8). This verse wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t possible to lose one’s faith. And so it is clear: once we are saved by Christ, we must remain steadfast in faith and not stumble or continue in sin, or we do risk falling away, at first temporarily, from which we can be restored, but if we fall into rebellion, which is a state of being, it can become permanent. Rebellion means directly and intentionally opposing the commandments of God with a hardened heart. This could be as simple as: I don’t need to worry about X, Y, Z sins, because Jesus forgives past, present, and future. That’s not what the Bible says. It says we sin in weakness, but by the strength of the Holy Spirit, we walk away from sin. Rebellion in all its forms brings death. There is no doubt, faith in the Holy Spirit and the power of the Holy Spirit can protect us from this, but we have to be constantly vigilant, clinging to Christ’s grace and mercy, and we can only do this through faith AND obedience. Here is the salient point: One who is saved can choose—through conscious effort or by deception—to rebel against God and continue in that rebellion, and for such a person, there is no salvation. Here’s where we need to dig in a little bit, because it is important to understand that we CAN fall away in order to prevent ourselves from actually falling away.

In Exodus 32:33, “The Lord replied to Moses, ‘Whoever has sinned against me I will blot out of my book’.”  In Numbers 14:22-23, we read: “Because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their ancestors. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.”

Lest we look only to the Old Testament for this truth, let’s look to the New:
In Hebrews 6:4-6, we read: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.”

In Hebrews 10:26-27, we find another witness: “If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”
In Romans 11:22, we read: “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”

So how are we to parse this? Why the apparent contradiction? If grace saves and faith sustains us, how does one lose their salvation? In the whole of 2 Peter 2, Peter writes about “false teachers” who will “secretly introduce destructive heresies” and “many will follow their depraved conduct and bring the way of truth into disrepute.”

I would ask you in follow-up to read the whole chapter for context on what’s being said here, but here are some key verses in 18-22:

“For [false teachers express] empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.” If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed returns to her wallowing in the mud.”
What’s more, this same Peter, whom Yeshua Himself called the rock after Peter acknowledged that Yeshua is the Messiah, warned about people taking Paul’s writings (Galatians and Ephesians among them) out of context. Here is that warning directly in Scripture from 2 Peter 3:4-18:

“So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to [the coming Kingdom of God], make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

So beware of Paul’s writings, as they are confusing, and false teachers will attempt to distort them to lead you away from the truth, so says Peter, the Lord’s rock! Lest we look only to these clear statements about falling out of grace, let’s also look at a couple examples of this in Scripture where Godly men and women actually fell from grace into damnation:

In the story of Saul in the book of 1 Samuel, we see King Saul who was anointed by Samuel and who prophesied rightly in the name of the Lord, fall into complete depravity and get cut off for good.

First, in 1 Samuel 10:1, it is confirmed that Saul has faith and is saved: ”Then Samuel took a flask of olive oil and poured it on Saul’s head and kissed him, saying, “Has not the Lord anointed you ruler over his inheritance?”

Secondly, we see Saul’s fall from grace in 1 Samuel 15:23: ”For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you [Saul] have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king."

Just so it’s clear that Saul has been damned after his being saved, and not just that he lost his crown, here are two proofs:

• 1 Samuel 16:13-14: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed [David] in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.”
2 Samuel 7:15: “But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.”

God saved Solomon, David’s son, in His mercy, while also confirming that he did not save Saul.
Likewise, Esau in Genesis 25:33, sold his birthright to Jacob, thus permanently giving up his chance of salvation: “So Esau swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob.” The New Testament confirms this and ties it to modern day activities in Hebrews 12:16: “Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.”
There are other examples in Scripture. Study Judas Iscariot, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, who had total faith in the Messiah but betrayed Him and was condemned to die as the son of perdition. Look up the story of Ahithophel, David’s assistant, or Demas, Paul’s assistant, or Ananias and Sapphira, just to name a few more.

Let’s look a little more closely at Ananias and Sapphira in Acts. In the last part of Acts 4, we read about Joses, also named Barnabas, a Levite of the country of Cyprus, who “having land sold it and brought the money and laid it at the apostles feet.” In Acts 5, Ananias, conspiring with his wife Sapphira, wanted the glory that Barnabas received for giving all that he had to the Church. These were believers. They were part of the Church. They “sold a possession, and kept back part of the proceeds ... and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles feet.” The problem here is not that they didn’t give the apostles all that they had, it is that they presented the money as if it was all that they had. Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? ... Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” Upon being confronted by the truth of his sin, Ananias “fell down and breathed his last.” This same thing is repeated with Sapphira, his wife. “Immediately, she fell down at his feet and breathed her last.” Death, which is to be interpreted as damnation, comes to those who were saved and then fall again into sin. “Great fear came upon all the Church and upon all who heard these things.” It is abundantly clear that we are to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling,” just like Paul writes in Philippians 2:12-13.

And finally, Yeshua directly spoke about those who would lose their salvation in Matthew 7:21-23:

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in Heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Be diligent brothers and sisters to make your election sure, for even Paul himself worried about falling away. To stay with Christ, we must follow Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. Don’t be deceived. It’s not a wide road, it’s a narrow one.

Day 8:  “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” Romans 9:1-5

In Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul further explains the matter that is before us in Romans 9-11, namely, that in Christ alone, we are made right with God, regardless of whether we are Jew or Gentile. Here is that text: “Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision [Gentiles] by what is called the Circumcision [Jews] made in the flesh by hands—that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. FOR HE HIMSELF IS OUR PEACE, WHO HAS MADE BOTH ONE [JEWS AND GENTILES], AND BROKEN DOWN THE MIDDLE WALL OF SEPARATION, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, … … thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity [THE ENMITY BETWEEN JEWS AND GENTILES CAUSED BY MISINTERPRETATION OF THE LAW]. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both [Jews and Gentiles] have access by one Spirit to the Father. Now, therefore, you [Gentiles] are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God [Israel], having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord [The Body of Christ], in whom you also [Gentiles] are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

As gentile Christians, we must be humble, contrite in Spirt, and grateful, that God came in the flesh and brought us in as adopted sons and daughters into the Household of God, the Nation of Israel. Yes, we’ll read on in Romans 11 that God has cut some of the branches off from Israel; namely, those who have rejected Jesus as Messiah, but these can be grafted back in to the one Tree of Israel if they choose to accept Him. The structure of the Faith requires both faith in Jesus as well as obedience to the commandments. You cannot have one without the other, for both are what it means to have faith. As we know from James 2, “faith without works is dead.” Thus, many Christians today don’t have the works that prove their faith, and many Jews don’t have the Messiah who saves them from their sins. We need both for it is grace THROUGH FAITH that saves us, and faith is doing, and not just hearing the Word.

Jesus brought the Truth of His own being to the Jews first, and then to the Greeks, and likewise, Paul brought the Truth first to the Jews and then the Greeks. God certainly chooses Israel first, and through Christ He has opened the door that was once closed to us Gentiles. But as Gentiles grafted in to Israel (not the Church, but Israel), we ought to fear, and not be overly confident in our position, for we are saved by grace through faith, and not by works so that we cannot boast. Our work of saying a prayer to Jesus and accepting His salvation is NOT enough. We must then go and do the works of faith, which means to keep the commandments of God. We should expect no reward whatsoever for these works, for they are what is expected of us. Nevertheless, if we do not do what is expected of us, should we receive a reward? This is not a paradox, but rather a Truth expressed widely in Scripture, that we are saved so that we can “go and sin no more,” and we know that “sin is lawlessness,” or rebellion against God’s commandments.

How could Paul not have grief for His brethren, the Jews who had rejected their own Messiah because they did not have eyes to see or ears to hear. How could He not relish the fact that this rejection was fully based in their own rejection of God, and by following this path they fulfilled the Word of God and made it abundantly clear that the Messiah had truly come. The Jews did not keep the commandments of God, but heaped up burdens that were not from God, but were rather from the traditions of Man. Rather than keep the commandments, they created their fence laws that they believed would keep them from violating the commandments. In time, the fence laws became more important to them than the commandments themselves, even when the fence laws themselves violated the commandments. God could not save those who were stuck in their own ways, for we know that a man’s heart is desperately wicked, and a man’s own way leads to death, but a man after God’s own heart is seeking God and His ways and putting his own ways aside. This is a man who can be saved by the grace of Christ, because He is open to receiving it and rejecting himself.

Many Jews, who were humble, accepted Jesus as the Messiah and made up the significant majority of the early church. Gentiles were only a thing much later, and Paul’s ministry was heavily responsible for bringing them into Israel. The adoption as sons belongs to Israel, because God gave Israel all of His law and all of His promises that would lead them to this victory. However, they rejected it before Christ even came on the scene. When Christ came, the son into the garden to set the vinedressers straight, we all killed Him, Jews and Gentiles alike, on account of our sin. Yet, He now calls new vinedressers to come into the garden to tend the vine, regardless of whether they are Jew or Greek. The vine is still Israel, and the root is God, Jesus Christ, who came in the flesh.

Jesus said, “many are called, but few are chosen” in Matthew 20:16. The Jews were called. Now we as Gentiles are being called, if we are Gentiles (for I personally am 15% Jewish by blood, and thus both a physical son of Abraham as well as a spiritual son of Abraham, because I am in Christ). The Lord still calls to His people Israel, for they are the apple of His eye, and He will redeem all the more as the Day approaches. As Gentiles, we ought to learn to fear God, for if we do not continue in the kindness of God by doing His will in Christ, yes, He will cut us off, too. The chosen, the elect, if you will, are not predestined to be saved in any different way then the called are predestined to be saved. Perhaps the Lord has chosen some to be damned; I will admit that it is quite possible for one to fall onto this path. If one rebels against God like Esau, giving up His inheritance for something as simple as a bowl of stew, then yes, He deserves damnation. It is a fearful thing to treat the sacrifice of Christ as a common thing, and the calling as a guarantee.

And yet God prophesied Esau would serve the brother, only because Jesus would be born out of the line of Isaac. Esau had a chance to be saved from birth; He too was called, to serve His brother. Are we not all called to serve our brothers, especially those who are born of Israel? Esau denied this calling and turned his back on it, his children contended with Israel and made a point of trying to destroy them and steal their land, against the will of God. Does God not punish those who practice lawlessness, and consistently out of an evil heart go against His will? He does. And so, Esau was called, just as Isaac was called, but in different ways, but only Isaac was chosen because He determined in his heart to serve the Lord and even offer himself up as a sacrifice if that was what God required. Is this not what Jesus asks of each of us, also? “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” (John 12:25) Esau was not chosen as elect because He put the world and his belly before the Lord and His promises.

And so while we may saved by the grace of Jesus Christ and thus called to follow Him and all of His ways, we are only chosen as His elect if we do what He asked us to do. How can we call Him Lord, Lord, and not do what He commanded? Anyone who does this is a liar and the Truth is not in Him. These are not my words, these are the words of the Lord through His apostles and I point them out because we all need to understand them as part of our overall walk with the Lord. He calls us toward Him, and we walk with Him, but if we turn away, how can we expect to be chosen by Him. Those who are among His elect will only be known on the Last Day, when He raises them up from death to life, and when He raises the rejected to eternal damnation; when He separates the sheep and the goats, the wheat from the chaff. Until then, we are called to follow Him, no more and no less. Are we elect? Only if we obey God’s commandments and keep our faith in Jesus. Otherwise, we are deceived.

Peter warns us in 2 Peter 3 to be cautious with Paul’s writing, because it is confusing, and he’s not wrong. At the same time, Paul’s writing is so eloquent that we are spoiled to have it as a treasure of truth that points to the Truth, if we take the time to align it with the rest of Scripture. In 2 Peter 1:10, Peter says, “Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble….” First, if our election IS sure, then why does Peter exhort us to “be more diligent to make your call and election sure.”? If there are no works that we can do that make any difference, why are we warned to do them with all diligence? This is a question that Calvinists MUST answer. And regarding his “therefore,” Peter has just told us to give all diligence and ADD to our FAITH: virtue, KNOWLEDGE, SELF-CONTROL, PERSEVERANCE, GODLINESS, brotherly kindness and love. IF these things are ours and abound, we will be fruitful in the Lord. If they are not present, how can we expect to be among the elect?

To dig in, it is clear that the knowledge Peter refers to is knowledge of the law, and thus self-control according to it, and perseverance in keeping it, which of course leads to Godliness. Another word for Godliness is righteousness, and we know that we are righteous when we FOLLOW JESUS and fulfill the law, just as He did. But Peter is even more specific and teaches the whole of the Christian experience, being the one who was closest to Jesus and chosen by Him directly to lead His body. It is not the letter of the law that matters, as Paul says, but the Spirit. And Peter tells us what that Spirit is: brotherly kindness and love. We must interpret God’s law and commandments and statutes and judgments in the Spirit of Love. Love is the key to unlocking its meaning. If we don’t keep the commandments with love, we are merely clashing gongs or clanging symbols, as Paul writes in Romans 13. Thus, let us be diligent to trust in Christ and obey His commandments, so that He will supply us with that entrance into His abundant and everlasting Kingdom, which is yet to come.

The story of Charles Simeon and John Wesley is worthwhile to consider as how we ought to speak to one other who have different understandings of these doctrines. We ought to part as friends, even when we disagree, and we ought to point to Scripture, and only Scripture, as our means of explaining the Word of God more accurately. In Simeon’s representation of his conversation with Wesley, which I take to be accurately represented by the man, he clearly presents himself as the victor in the dispute, feeling quite proud of himself, I’m sure. I don’t agree with the responses that Wesley gave in their entirety, because there is significant and important nuance he left out. This is why I write from Scripture to show how this nuance is realized in the whole of Scripture. We cannot look to Romans alone, or Paul alone, for Paul was a commentator of Scripture, and Scripture is the Tanakh, the Old Testament, according to Paul’s own admission to Timothy. To truly understand Paul, we must align his writing with the Word of our Lord, both through the prophets and through His own mouth, for this trumps any other understanding always.

Now, I will never say that I follow any man, for I follow Christ, but I did find the devotional writer’s distinction between Calvinism and Arminianism to be of interest. Arminius rejected the Calvinist tenets of “unconditional election,” “the nature of the limitation of the atonement,” and “irresistible grace,” which I also reject, and rather taught of a "preventing" (or prevenient) grace that has been conferred upon all by the Holy Spirit and this grace is "sufficient for belief, in spite of our sinful corruption, and thus for salvation." Arminius stated that "the grace sufficient for salvation is conferred on the Elect, and on the Non-elect; that, if they will, they may believe or not believe, may be saved or not be saved." Now, I would not use the same terminology as Him, because I believe the grace sufficient for salvation is conferred upon the “called,” and they are only chosen (or elect) if they decide to follow through with their salvation and do what the Lord has asked, but that determination is not made until the Last Day when Christ comes to judge. I’d add that we are saved so that we can follow Him and do His will, as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob did, and as Jesus did Himself.

As one final thought, I see in the article I read concerning Arminius that Arminius rejected Pelagius, and the two are often linked together. I too reject Pelagius, for he had views contrary to Scripture. Now, I haven’t studied Arminius, but from what I’ve seen, I think his doctrine too is lacking. Calvin, whom I have studied, I utterly reject as deceived. The point though is this: I don’t follow any of these men, and nor do I adopt any of their doctrine. Frankly, I don’t even adopt the doctrine of Paul, for Paul Himself admonishes us not to do this. He said we do not follow Paul, or Apollos or any other disciple of Jesus Christ, but we follow Christ Himself. This too is my greatest desire, to follow Jesus, our savior, who has saved me by His grace. It is my intent to faithfully teach His Word, and not my own, and to do this until He comes, as Paul said in 1 Cor. 9:27, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” I do not wish to be disqualified by practicing the lawlessness of the flesh, but I rather desire to be elect on account of my obedience to God’s commandments through the Holy Spirit and my faith in Christ, which leads to a deep trust in His promises. I urge you brothers, to be diligent, as I strive to be, to “make your calling and election sure.”

Day 9: “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “through Isaac your descendants will be named.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Romans 9:6-13

The promises of God are eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven and salvation through the blood of the Lamb of God, who is Jesus, but those promises are conditional and apply only to those who love Him and keep His commandments. As noted in commentary on earlier verses, Abraham didn’t just believe in God’s promises, but he moved as though they were true and acted accordingly. He did the works that proved his faith. And so Paul’s point here in Romans 9:6-13 explains quite eloquently that those men and women who believe in Jesus and obey God’s commandments, because they believe in the promises of God, like Abraham did, will be considered by God to be the children of Abraham. We know Isaac was a prophetic template for our Lord Jesus, because Abraham had two sons at this point in the story, yet God said that Abraham was willing to sacrifice “his only son.” There is no contradiction here. Isaac was the son that God promised. Ishmael was the son that Abraham produced by taking matters into his own hands and not waiting on God. Thus, Isaac was the only son of promise. This speaks nothing about the eternal fate of Ishmael himself, for the Lord said he would make a great nation out of him, too.

And as noted regarding Romans 9:1-5, there is nothing in the prophesy about Esau, that he would serve his younger brother Jacob, that dooms him to perdition. God only notes that His Messiah will come from Jacob, rather than Esau, and that the nation of Edom would be subservient to the Nation of Israel and Judah. Both of these prophesies were fulfilled. It was Esau’s choice to forsake his inheritance for a bowl of red lentils, and it was Edom’s choice to contend against Israel and envy the nation, rather than accept the station in life that God had given them. Neither choice was predestined, and neither was necessary. If Esau and his descendants has obeyed God’s commandments and accepted their station, they too would be worthy of the inheritance, which is not a temporal inheritance, but rather an eternal one. When our Bibles translate the Hebrew/Greek into “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,” they do us a great disservice and lead to much misinterpretation. The word “hated,” “miseó” in the Greek, simply means “loved less.” God favored Jacob on account of the promise that He made through Him; namely, to bring Jesus Christ into the world.

Esau did not have the honor of providing the bloodline to the Messiah, but rather, he was told to serve his brother. Now, this indeed is a lower station, for it is clear that by blessing Jacob with such a great honor, God loved Jacob more. Again I ask you, though, are we not all asked to serve our brother? “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant” (Matthew 23:11). And so, had Esau actually obeyed God, would he not have been greater? Yet, he did not obey God. He rebelled against Him, and “Esau despised his birthright.” (Genesis 25:24). Will God reward those who choose to despise their birthright, which is the Kingdom of God? He will not. Only those who call on His name and obey His commands and seek Him with all of their heart, soul, mind and strength are truly striving with God and seeking their birthright. This is what Jacob did, patiently persevering throughout his life, striving with men and striving with God. He served his uncle for longer than he agreed to, he went the extra mile, and then he sought after what had been promised to him. He is a model we should all aspire to follow, not because he was the ancestral father of Jesus, but because he obeyed God.

Thus, when Paul says “it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who descended from Israel…” He points out that the children of Israel are indeed those who believe in the promises of God and follow through with their actions, just like Abraham and Issac and Jacob did. The promise was, “Sarah shall have a son.” God delivered this promise, but not before Abraham sinned and had a son of his own flesh. He repented of this, but waited longer than perhaps he originally would have, so God could show his majesty in the weakness of Sarah’s flesh. Abraham came to believe in this promise, and acted on it, and that is what was accounted as righteousness. God’s purpose calls us to our station in life, for good or bad, and what matters is what we do with what we have been given. Do we believe in God’s promises for us, His salvation through Christ, and act on it through obedience, or do we rebel against God and show our disobedience? This is how you know whether you are among the children of God, whether Jew or Greek.

Day 10: “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” Romans 9:14-18

The man whom God hardens is the one who has hardened Himself to God. Before Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, he persecuted Israel and Moses for attempting to keep God’s law. It is because Pharaoh rejected God that God hardened His heart. It is because Moses humbled Himself before God, being a prince of Egypt and privy to all of the glory of Egypt, that God used Him in His repentance to do His will. Yes, God will have mercy on whom He will have Mercy and compassion on whom He will have compassion, but He defines this specifically throughout Scripture. He has compassion and mercy on the ones who love Him and keep His commandments, and He brings blessing on the same. He hardens those who have turned away from Him, because He turns His back on the same and allows them to descend into the curses of their own choices. The curses are meant to bring repentance, but the one who hardens Himself will be hardened further by the increasing judgment of God (see Romans 1). This is justice, and this is righteousness, and God is merciful.

Day 11: “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. As He says also in Hosea, “I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ” “And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of the living God.” Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, thoroughly and quickly.” And just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.” Romans 9:19-29

The questions Paul asks here are rhetorical, they are not doctrine. However, it’s quite clear that doctrine is at the root of this. We might ask the question, why did Gentiles (for the most part) have no part in the kingdom of God prior to the coming of Christ? Why did God allow Israel to be blinded and deaf to the Word of Truth regarding their own Messiah? Is there any mercy or grace involved in any of this, or are some people just damned? The answer to these questions is “I DON’T KNOW,” and nobody else does either, except God. Only He knows what He has created, and only He knows the final disposition of anyone’s souls. He has called those who are not His people, “My people.” He has called Gentiles to be grafted-in to Israel. And yet, He has allowed some of His people, to be called “not my people.” This was done through their own free will choice to reject their own Messiah, and yet, God knew that many of them would fall in this way ahead of time. This was to prove to the world, upon this prophesy’s fulfillment, that Jesus actually was the True Messiah promised by God.

All we need to do is read ahead in Isaiah to the conclusion of the matter to know that God will definitively redeem those of physical Israel who turn toward their Messiah, and as Gentile believers, we ought to take great joy from the idea that God chose to welcome us into the Body of His elect, if Christ is truly in us.  Consider Isaiah 29:22-24: “Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now turn pale; But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst, They will sanctify My name; Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob And will stand in awe of the God of Israel. Those who err in mind will know the truth, And those who criticize will accept instruction.” There is a plan for redemption, and it is Christ. I’m not sure how it all will work, and neither does anyone else (run from someone who yells “predestination,” for that is not in these verses).

However, I do know what God has called me into, and so do you, if you know Christ. Do we walk in this calling? God wants both Jew and Greek (Gentile) to turn toward Him, but not everyone will do so. God has foreknowledge that a remnant of people will always remain stalwart in their faith, no matter what comes their way. There will always be a remnant who turn to Him for His mercy and His lovingkindness and His forgiveness, because it is impossible for every man and woman to turn their back on the God who created them. The Lord of the Sabbath, Yeshua, has indeed left a posterity for God on the Earth; namely, all who call upon His name. The Earth one day will resemble Sodom and Gomorrah, but like “righteous Lot,” those who choose to trust in Jesus and keep His commandments will be led out before the fire reigns down or they will be kept whole even while standing in the fire— the sin and imperfection burning off through the blood of the Lamb.

Day 12: “What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed. | Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation. For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God’s righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.””  Romans 9:30-33, Romans 10:1-13

In John 15:9-12, Jesus says, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

If the law is now embodied in some ethereal faith of the mind alone, or fulfilled in Christ (so that we don’t have to fulfill it), then Jesus would not have commanded us to follow it in the same exact way that He did. When Jesus says, “love one another, as I have loved you,” here is the paraphrase of what he’s saying in modern English: I fulfilled the law perfectly in the flesh and showed you how to do it; now, because you have faith in me, you should do as I did and fulfill the law perfectly by following me. Do you think there are two gods? That God the Father and God the Son are different? That is the heresy of Marcion, which lives on to this day in the antinomian church. The Father and the Son are ONE God, and their commandments are the same commandments. And Jesus made it very clear that we are to follow the commandments, if we love Him.

As we return to Romans 9 and the first parts of Romans 10, Paul is talking about the mystery of Gentiles coming into the faith through Messiah Yeshua, and some, but not all, of the Jews missing their own Messiah. This had been prophesied since the very beginning, but now it was being realized in Paul’s day. Yet, as we read in Isaiah 28:16-19, 22-29; Isaiah 64:6-9; Isaiah 65:1-25; and Deuteronomy 30:2-20, the Lord had a plan. Originally, He noted that anyone who followed His commandments through trust in Him through His Mediator Moses and the prophets would be righteous, but no man was able to do this without sin. Thus, He grew furious and judged Israel and the Gentile believers with them for their sin. But His promise was to bring them back, through the Messiah, and forgive those transgressions through a new Mediator. Now, as Gentiles were pouring into the Faith, but many were not, and the Jews had established the faith, but many did not believe, God is making a fundamental separation between sheep and goats; those who obey the commandments by the power of the Holy Spirit through faith in Jesus, and those who do not.

We must address Romans 10:4 first, for it is certainly a verse that can be taken and used for antinomian purposes, but there is context enough within the verse to discuss. From a direct Greek to English translation (https://biblehub.com/interlinear/romans/10-4.htm), the verse reads: “End for of law Christ unto righteousness to everyone believing. With some English words added for clarity, we might translate “The end for the law is Christ unto righteousness to everyone who believes.” The operative word that causes contention here is “end,” which is télos (τέλος) in Greek. Antinomian Christians will interpret this word to mean that the law is no longer of any effect, but this is false, and Christ says so Himself in Matthew 5:17-20. Remember brothers and sisters, our heart is desperately wicked, and desiring to run from God in every way possible, and Satan is going to help to that end. To run toward Christ without the law is to run to a false Jesus who never was and never will be. Due to the preponderance of evidence in Scripture, and the Word of the Lord Himself, the word “end” does not mean that the law has come to an end, for this would contradict the Lord. Thus, the word must mean something else.

From HELPS-Word studies, we see that télos means consumption, or the end-goal and purpose. Getting into the root of the word unveils further meaning. The root “tel-“ means reaching the end or aim, which is illustrated with the pirate telescope, unfolding or extending out one stage at a time to function at full strength; in other words, the thing has reached its capacity effectiveness. This is the meaning of the Word and the point of Paul’s writing to us in Romans 9:30-33-Romans 10:1-13. And how do we know this? In Romans 10:17, which is beyond our reading in today’s verses, Paul writes “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Do me a favor and read Psalm 119. We know from God’s own Word that “the Word of God” is synonymous with the law, with the commandments, with the Truth, with righteousness, and YES, with Christ Himself, who is the Word who became flesh. Thus, as we return to where I started in John 15, we see that Christ perfectly fulfilled the law, meaning that He kept it in every way, which is something that no man had ever done, nor ever will. He is God who came in the flesh, and only God Himself could flawlessly execute His law.

Thus, because God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, Yeshua HaMashiach, was the only one who could ever fully execute the law, and the only one who ever did, His death on the cross for us allows us to look upon His blood to heal us as a one-time sacrifice, on account of God’s grace, which is a free gift. Not only that, He rose from the dead and conquered sin and death, so that we who trust in Him would receive the Holy Spirit, which is God in Spirit, who will literally come to dwell inside of us. If the Spirit of God is truly dwelling within you, then He will help you fulfill the law just as Jesus did, and just as Jesus commanded us to do, if we love Him. I can’t emphasize enough that if you say that you have Christ dwelling within you, and you do not keep the commandments of God, you are a liar and the Truth is not in you. I do not say this, brothers and sisters, but the Apostle John does say this in 1 John 2:4. Our Lord Jesus Christ says the same thing: “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say? (Luke 6:46). If we look at Matthew 7:21-23, we see that those who do not keep the law, but rather practice lawlessness, will be cast out into Hell on the Last Day.

So what is Paul saying here? Scripture must interpret Scripture, and Paul’s writing in Romans 9 and 10 cannot possibly contradict the words of Jesus and the writings of John, or anyone else in Scripture. They are all true, and if they are not all true, then we must cast out the one that contradicts as false doctrine. But we don’t need to do this, because while Paul’s writing is confusing, according to Peter in 2 Peter 3:15-16, it does not contradict the Word of God. Yes, we receive the fullness of God’s culminated plan for us when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and this is our salvation. There is no work we could possibly do that can save us, and salvation leads to receipt of the Holy Spirit. This is the very beginning of our faith, and it is the state where too many Christians remain. Paul rebukes Christians in Hebrews 6:1-3 for doing this, and yet, here we are still discussing these elementary principles today because of hard heartedness and the desires of the flesh. Repent, turn and live!

We do not receive salvation so that we can sit back and continue to live as we lived before, “for Christ is not a minister of sin,” (Galatians 2:17), but we must be born again and live a new life in Christ, with love. This is doing, and not just hearing the Word of God, as James says in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” In fact, to be a doer of the Word is what brings blessing. We know also from James 2 that “faith without works is dead.” Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40) If we are like our teacher, Master Jesus, then we will keep the works of the law. Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:17-19, “And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”

Brothers and sisters, we must cast off the traditions of our fathers, whether our fathers are the Jews who violated the commandments of God but kept their own tradition (Mark 7), or the Christian Gentiles who abandoned the law and invented the ideas of predestination, ethereal grace absent the law, and added Jesus’s name on their own extra-Biblical, pagan festivals. Jesus tells us not to fear man, but to fear God who can throw us into Hell, and He will if we continue in aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers. We must turn away from that and turn toward Christ, who flawlessly kept the law of God and instructed us to do the same, with His help. He firmly rejected the law of Man and told us that our righteousness must exceed the Pharisees if we want to make it to Heaven. Salvation is wonderful, it means you have been called, but will you be elect, among the chosen ones who will be glorified on the last day? Only if you endure in the faith by keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

To the audience in Rome, the idea in Romans 9:30-33 is that Gentiles previously had not known the law of God, but were now being offered salvation through the blood of Jesus. And in their faith they obtained righteousness by faith. I must repeat myself, faith is doing, and not just hearing or believing. “Even the demons believe, and they tremble.” Faith means trusting in Jesus, believing in His promises and thus doing what He has commanded. This is the righteousness those who did not know the law obtained through the death of Jesus. On account of their faith, they pursued God fervently in the Synagogue each Sabbath and learned the law of Moses (Acts 15:21). We too are commanded to do the same. Now the Jews who rejected Christ missed the point of God’s law, and in fact pursued their own laws and elevated their oral tradition above the law of God. It were these works invented by man that caused them to miss the mark. This is important: It is because they lacked faith in God’s promises that they did not keep the law, it is because they did not pursue the law with God’s spirit of love, but rather sought after it because they were told they had to. For this very reason, they stumbled when Jesus came and showed them how to properly keep the law, because it was opposed to their tradition. However, those who believed were healed just as the Gentiles who were coming in.

Like Paul, my heart is for Jews today to achieve salvation, which comes alone through Christ Jesus. You cannot only have a zeal for God, following after your own heart, but you must have God’s Spirit, so that He can help you keep the Law according to the love of Christ. They lacked the knowledge of God because true knowledge comes by the Holy Spirit. When you read the Bible, if you rely on commentaries you are doing the same thing the Jews did and still do. When you rely on false preachers like Calvin, you are being led astray to the slaughter, which will come on the Last Day. There is no knowledge in reading commentaries from men without the Holy Spirit, who produce commentary for a living based on the false teachings of false prophets. It’s the blind leading the blind, and those who don’t wake from their deception will not make it. Paul writes that these people, whether the Jews he was writing about, or the Christians of today, do not know about God’s righteousness and seek to establish their own. It is because “they did not subjugate themselves to the righteousness of God.” I’m not sure how it could be more clear.

But to clarify further, Paul writes, “Christ is the end of the law of righteousness to everyone who believes.” We come back to this key verse. If we believe in Christ, we ought to follow Him, because He asked us to. No, He commanded us to do it. He said, “love one another, as I have loved you.” How do we love one another as He loved us if we aren’t doing what He did, nor doing what He said to do? Christ is the end of the law and the end of righteousness because He is the law and He is righteousness. He lived out the law and He lived out righteousness flawlessly. Thus, we have a very beautiful, succinct and easy model to follow as we read the Word of God. If we have God’s Holy Spirit, which is Christ’s Holy Spirit, also, because there is only ONE God, He will help us keep the law the way He intended us to keep it. It is through His Spirit that we obtain the Knowledge that He has prepared for us to know and to do.

Paul further says, “do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down), or ‘who will descend into the abyss?’ (that is to bring Christ up from the dead), but here you have today people who do this every Sunday, which isn’t even the Lord’s Day according to His own Word. He says this another way in Hebrews 6:4-6: “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.” How can we go to the altar each week and keep repenting of the same sins? Christ is NOT a minister of sin! No, brothers and sisters, we must change and embrace a full hearted desire to obey God’s commandments, and then let Him help us. For righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” If Christ’s Holy Spirit is in you, He will help you know His law, and He will help you keep His law, but you need to act, first by reading the Word of God day and night, and then by embracing it and making it a part of your life. This is what faith means!

And so yes, brothers and sisters, as we go out into the world and talk to the Jews who do not believe and the Gentiles who do not believe, we ought to lead them toward God with this Truth: “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in Salvation.” If you believe, your heart ought to be to serve God and keep His commandments, not out of blind obedience, but out of a living obedience with the Holy Spirit prompting you and helping you. Jesus said that whatever dwells within your heart is the fruit that it will bear, whether false teachings that defame and rebel against the Word of God, or Truth which teaches, praises, loves and acts out the commandments of God. Only if you have true faith can the love of Jesus dwell in you and prompt you to do His will. And if you believe in Him, which is doing and not just hearing, then you will not be disappointed.

And you see, we must go out to all, Jew and Greek, for there are not two different dispensations. As Paul writes, “there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.” There will not be some weird tribulation period where the Jews will suddenly come back into knowledge of Jesus; it’s now or never. We all live or die on the blood of the Lamb. There is no salvation apart from Him, and there is no glorification apart from doing His will, and to get from A (salvation) to B (glorification), we are sanctified by His Holy Spirit when we embrace the commandments of God and do them because we love our Savior Jesus. There is no other way. It’s a testimony of two, and Paul teaches this same Truth, if you have eyes to see.

Day 13: “'How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? How will they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things!” However, they did not all heed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our report?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; “Their voice has gone out into all the earth , And their words to the ends of the world .” But I say, surely Israel did not know, did they? First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by that which is not a nation , By a nation without understanding will I anger you .” And Isaiah is very bold and says, “I was found by those who did not seek Me , I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me .” But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people .”' Romans 10:14-21

Here is the Truth: “The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the Lord are true; they are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord , my rock and my Redeemer.’” Psalms 19:7-14

The Rock, the Redeemer, Jesus the Messiah. He is the one David is writing about in Psalm 19. This is not a different rock and redeemer, it is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for all eternity, past, present and future. There is no other God. He is one. Paul writes to those who have come to believe in Messiah Yeshua, the one, true and only God. He writes for us to spread the Gospel, the Great Commission, that He Himself gave to us in Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Note toward the end of that commission: “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.” Yes, He also commanded us to make disciples, to baptize, and to bring new believers into the faith, but once they are in the faith, they need to learn the commandments of God and do them.

And so, Paul speaks concerning His Jewish brethren who have not yet believed in the Messiah, as well as any Gentiles who don’t yet believe. He asks, how can they call on Jesus to help them if they don’t believe in Him? Good question. The follow-up is, how can they believe if they have not heard of Him? Another good question. How can they hear without a preacher? And again, how can anyone preach unless Christ Himself calls them? All of these questions are exhorting those who are called as teachers to go out and fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20. This is a commandment, not a suggestion. We are all called to spread the Gospel. Paul makes an even greater call to preachers who hear from God to go out and teach men and women about Jesus, for there is salvation in no other name. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. These names are synonymous. The Word of God from Genesis to Revelation testifies about Him, and when we believe, He comes to dwell within us to help us understand and do what He has commanded.

In Paul’s day, many in Israel were denying their own Messiah, but this was no different than what Israel had done all along. “All the day long I have stretched out my day to a disobedient and obstinate people.” There was always a remnant who trusted God and kept His commandments, and some who even prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. This is no different than today, except that today, God stretches out His hand to a disobedient and obstinate people in the Church, and Israel is coming to know their Messiah like never before. There are a remnant of Gentiles who are coming to understand the unity of Jews and Gentiles in Christ, but there are not many. The age of the Gentiles is soon coming to an end, and the Lord will glorify spiritual Israel, both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus and follow God’s commandments, on the Last Day. The rest will be destroyed.

Jews were not all to come to full knowledge of the Truth, just as Gentiles are not all to come to full knowledge of the Truth. God knew this would happen, but it was up to each individual to make the decision on their own—whether they would trust in Jesus and keep God’s commandments. For those who do, there is blessing, and for those who don’t, there are curses coming. It all matters what is in the heart, for the heart either bears fruit for God or fruit for the world, and there is no in between. Is our heart to obey, or is our heart to disregard? That’s the question we all must ask ourselves, and God already knows the answer. In the beginning of the New Covenant, many Jews were blind to their Messiah due to the hardness of their hearts; their disobedience, and in their disobedience they were not ready to receive the Truth. God said this would happen, but He didn’t pick the individuals. These individuals chose their own path, so that they themselves could be a witness to the coming of the Messiah. In the end, only those saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus through all the tribulations of life, will make it into His kingdom. This is why we must preach to everyone we can that the time to repent and hear the good news is NOW!

Day 14: “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.” And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, And a stumbling block and a retribution to them. Let their eyes be darkened to see not, And bend their backs forever.” Romans 11:1-10

In God’s grace he reaches down through Christ and His Holy Spirit and reveals Himself to those whom He is calling, because of His graciousness. It is not that He condemns the rest to die, but they condemn themselves by rejecting His covenantal cup. Paul uses Elijah as an example, who in this part of his life sinned by presumptuously looking up and saying something like the Pharisee in Luke 18:10-14; namely, “Thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers or even this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess,” while God was humbling Elijah into a man like the tax collector, who said, “God, be merciful to me a sinner.” He was humbling Elijah, however, because he was a man already aligned in his heart to do God’s will. Sometimes, we all get a little pride like Elijah, like the Pharisee in Luke 18, and God needs to humble us, and He does this through chastening, as Elijah later experiences. Ultimately, it is only by God’s grace that we have any hope at all, because we all sin like Elijah did here, and in other ways.

But it’s important to consider another example to understand what Paul means by saying, “In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace. What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, Eyes to see not and ears to hear not, Down to this very day.” Take the example of Pharaoh in Egypt. Now, God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. But first, Pharaoh drowned thousands of Hebrew baby boys out of jealousy and fear, full well knowing as Paul said in Romans 1:20-21: “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.“

Pharaoh had the example of the Hebrews who lived according to God’s will, and yet, rather than embrace their joyful life and find out what made them so successful and make fellowship with them as some of his countrymen later do, Pharaoh looked to destroy them. God did not yet harden his heart, but gave him one more chance to repent. In Exodus 5 we see Moses and Aaron go in to Pharaoh and ask him to allow Israel to celebrate a feast of the Lord in the wilderness. Pharaoh says, “who is the Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go. I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go.” Pharaoh was stuck worshipping idols and he refused to recognize the one true God who created Heaven and Earth and everything in them, who later came in the flesh and died for our sins. Moses and Aaron knew the Lord, and they knew His law, even before He gave it to them. Do you see it here? “Please, let us go three days journey into the desert and sacrifice to the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence and the sword.”

In this statement, we see that the law of God is eternal and known to all men, and yet Pharaoh does not want to even consider it. He says what Satan has always said about God’s day of Sabbath rest: “Why do you take the people from their work? Get back to their labor.” Work, you see, was the curse that God put on men in Genesis 3:17: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life.” In His grace and mercy, God provides us with one day per week, each seventh-day Sabbath, and seven feasts throughout the year to rest, a blessing which is a rehearsal for the blessings of His Heavenly Kingdom that is to come. It is a day He commands us to rest, so that we can experience what it is like to live outside of the curse. Pharaoh rejects God by rejecting His Sabbath rest, and instead commands that the Hebrews do even more work, complaining, “They are idle; therefore they cry out, saying, “let us sacrificed to our God.” It is not a coincidence that early pagans who adopted Christianity used the same logic as Pharaoh when they also rejected God’s sabbaths and holy days. They too turned their back on Him.

And so it is not until Exodus 7:2-3 that God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, and it is because Pharaoh had already rejected Him: God tells Moses and Aaron who are trusting and obeying Him: “You shall speak all that I command you. And Aaron your brother shall tell Pharaoh to send the children of Israel out of his land. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.” We see this same progression in Romans 1:22-25, and this applies directly to Pharaoh: “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” As you read on in Romans 1, you’ll see that there is a downward spiral of judgment that comes from rejecting God and His commandments.

And so, just like Pharaoh whom God hardened after He turned His back on God, God also hardened the Israelites who turned their back on Him and followed after their own ways, “worshipping birds and four-footed animals and other creeping things.” It is because of their sin, their persistent sin, their practicing lawlessness, that God gave them over to uncleanness. God hardens the hearts of those who reject Him and His ways. He does not harden the hearts of men and women who are seeking Him, even though by stumbling, as Elijah stumbled, and Moses and Aaron stumbled, they fall short of perfection. It is this type of sinner, one who wants to please God, but has failed in one way or another, that God calls by His grace. This is the one that God calls to be His remnant. God can work with a man or woman who’s heart is to serve Him, but He will not work with men or women who’s hearts are to disregard and disobey Him. He will harden their hearts unto destruction, unless they repent and turn back.

And so God’s grace comes not according to works, but on the condition of the heart to do those works, which is faith. Do men wish to serve God and do His will? God will have mercy on those of us who do and call us according to His grace to follow Jesus, the one who has forgiven us our sins. This is the remnant that He calls, and when they continue in this faith, He choses them for glorification among the elect. Israel as a whole did not obtain God’s grace because the nation had fallen into a state where they were seeking only their own ways, rather than the ways of God. Because of this, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.” God hardens the hearts and closes the eyes and ears of those who reject Him. Yet, those who chose to serve God and trust in Him and obey His ways, these were chosen by God for His grace, and these obtained it. Even these are the ones who were granted the grace of God through Jesus Christ, whether they are Jew or Greek.

God knew Paul’s heart, as He knows the heart of each of us. Was Paul so worried about following the tradition of the elders, or was he truly seeking the righteousness of God? Was he seeking man’s ways or God’s ways? I would argue the latter, or else God would not have called him out of sin into His marvelous light, blinding him on the road to Damascus and showing him how to obtain the grace that he obtained by his heart that was seeking after righteousness, even though he was misguided in his understanding. When sinners are called out of their sin, it is because they know in their heart that it is wrong what they’re doing, but they don’t know how to escape. This is the heart God calls through His grace. This is the one He reaches out to with the salvation that only comes through Jesus Christ. For those who relish their sin and pursue it with pride, these God hardens, and they grow worse and worse. In all of this, there is a relationship between the choices of our free will and the calling toward God or hardening away from God that follows. God acts on our lives according to the state of our heart, and He calls the ones with a heart to serve Him to be His remnant.

Day 15: “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be! But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are too. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?” Romans 11:11-24

Romans 9-11 is about Gentiles being grafted-in to Israel, the “Olive Tree” prophesied throughout Scripture, which has Jesus as its root. I wrote a lengthy sermon about this concept, that we are grafted-in to Israel through Messiah Yeshua, and you are welcome to read it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/d02czc87av86ak2/20210925_GraftedIn_PDF (1).pdf?dl=0. I’ll include some excerpts commenting on the verses in Romans 11:11-24, which are pertinent verses for understanding this mystery.

As Paul begins this section, we see that many Jews stumbled in being blind and deaf to the coming of the Messiah because of prophesy; this occurred so that Gentiles could be grafted-in to Israel and make Israel jealous. Remember, God is a jealous God and He doesn’t want us to worship any other god besides Him. Thus, He uses the salvation of the Gentiles into the Hebraic faith through the Hebraic Messiah to show the Jews how God truly wants us to be in relationship with Him. They are missing out, just like God was missing out on their love as they wandered and worshipped other gods. Now, the unbelieving Jews would be made to feel like God felt when they wandered. God is wandering from them, to make them want Him more. Many Jews have come to faith in Messiah Yeshua because of this jealousy, which was prophesied from before. Paul notes that the Jews’ blindness to Messiah was riches for the world and the Gentiles, for we now have the opportunity to know God intimately. It is this same intimacy the Jews have desired from the beginning. What glory will occur as Jews come back into the faith through Messiah Yeshua!

Now, Paul specifies that he is writing to the Gentiles who have become Christians specifically over the next section, though you know He also writes for His Jewish brethren who made up the majority of the faith at this time. He speaks to them about what to expect as the faith progresses from the lens of writing to the Gentiles, who are experiencing God’s grace for the first time. These are the ones Jesus Himself asked Paul to preach to, which does not mean he excluded the Jews, for His mission was to preach to the Jews first, and then the Gentiles, and Acts shows him doing this very thing. Paul’s own vision for his ministry to the gentiles is to move the Jews to jealousy so that the remnant of them can be saved. There is always a remnant. Not all Jews will be saved, just like not all Gentiles will be saved. Only those that repent and believe in Jesus, and then endure in their faith in Jesus and keep the commandments of God.

Fulfilling prophesy, many Jews would reject Jesus so that the faithful among the nations could be brought in to the tree of Israel, and yet, when they accept Jesus, they too will die to Him and then rise up into a new creation, just like anyone who comes to believe in the Messiah. Now, Paul moves next into two metaphors for the reality of the Messianic faith in Jesus, first likening Jesus to the first piece of dough, the first fruits of salvation, and Israel, the lump of dough as a whole as also holy, but then he goes on to explain what the lump actually is by bringing in the Scriptural representation of Israel; namely, an Olive Tree. The root, which again is Jesus, is holy, and so the branches of the tree that He nourishes are also holy. This is the Body of Messiah, or Israel; namely, those who strive with God as Jacob did in the wilderness when his name was changed from Jacob, striver with men, to Israel, striver with God. We strive after God by accepting Him and trusting in Him and thus doing His will.

Now, Paul moves on to say that some of the branches of this Olive Tree, which is Israel, were broken off because they were blind and deaf to the coming of their Messiah, who saves all. Remember, as an aside, that Jesus gives sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. Think very carefully about these metaphors that we see throughout the New Testament Scripture. These Jewish men, first subject to the prophesy, He healed and sent to spread the good news and to go and sin no more. But many of them rejected Jesus, and thus were no longer part of Israel, because they rejected Israel’s king. And yet, branches from wild olive trees were broken off of their miserable state of ignorance and grafted-in to the natural Olive Tree, which is Israel. Note that these wild branches were grafted-in “among them,” meaning among the natural branches, because as we read in Ephesians 2, the “enmity” between Jews and Gentiles is no longer present in Messiah Jesus.

Both the natural branches (Jews) who believe, and the wild branches (Gentiles) who believe are part of one Natural Olive Tree, Gentiles being adopted in to the family of Israel, and both take part of the rich root of the olive tree, which is Jesus. This is where Paul gives a warning, quite prophetically, to the Gentiles who are grafted-in: “Do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.” This is the story of the last 2000 years, as Christians rejected the Hebraic roots of the faith, and looked with contempt on the Jewish people and the nation of Israel. So long is this history, so horrid in its realization, even Hitler used Christian themes to murder Jews, citing Luther, which is something they have not forgotten. How does this evil provoke the Jews to jealousy! In brief, it doesn’t, and Satan has had quite a victory in the last 2000 years as Christians have rejected their Jewish heritage and pridefully assumed that they were supporting the root, rather than the other way around.

The time for this rejection of our Hebraic roots is over, and many Gentile Christians today are recognizing the importance of their Hebraic heritage and truly grafting themselves in to Israel. This move, which is growing fast, is what is currently provoking Jews to jealousy. It is prophesy being fulfilled in our lifetime, and amazingly so. When we obey God’s commandments, even up to keeping the feasts He told us to keep forever, and the Sabbath He told us to remember and keep each seventh day, which is Saturday, the Jews look on and want to know more. In fact, in recent years, studies have confirmed that 19 percent of American Jews now embrace Jesus as their Messiah, but they call Him by His given, Hebraic name, Yeshua. This is a miracle, but God is not done. Paul goes into this reality as he continues to write this prophetic metaphor.

Now Gentiles will say, according to Paul, “‘branches were broken off so I might be grafted in.’ Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith.” This is the reality of the “Church age,” or as Jesus calls it in Luke 21, “the age of the Gentiles.” Look at how Jesus Himself prophesies concerning these last 2000 years in Luke 21:6, 20-24:

6 “These things which you see—the days will come in which not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown down.” … 20“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. 21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her. 22 For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. 24 And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

This prophesy happened in AD 70, when the Temple was destroyed, and then AD 136, following a short four-year reign of Simon Bar Kokhba. With great importance, Rabbi Akiva ben Yosef, whose teachings modern Jews base their religion on, hailed Bar Kokhba as the Messiah, because he was of the Davidic line. Didn’t Yeshua say, “Many false Christs will come in my name?” Bar Kokhba led a rebellion against Rome in AD 132 and won. The Jews took control over Jerusalem and were about to build the third temple. Clearly, God would not allow this false Messiah to reign and build what He was already building in His body of believers. Rome came in and wiped out millions of Jews and barred any Jews from living in Israel, a time of great desolation prophesied by Daniel the prophet in Chapter 9. Not only this, a temple to Satan was built on the holy of holies, and literally written on the walls of that temple is an inscription that says “God has no son.” What blasphemy! This is the abomination of desolation.

Not only this, but from that point on, Jews were hated by Christians in name, and only loved by that remnant of Christians who truly understood the message of Scripture. There was always a remnant of Christians who kept God’s holy Word, His feasts, his Sabbaths, and obeyed their Messiah Yeshua.  They have also been heavily persecuted throughout the ages. The writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12:8: “if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.” This is a sign that they were on the right path, and today this movement grows greater than it ever has since the beginning of the faith. We know from Hebrews 12:7 “If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” We know that as the movement to return to our Jewish roots grows, and we know that as this movement brings many Jews to jealousy so that the number of Messianic Jews grows greater every year, that the age of the Gentiles have almost been fulfilled, and many Gentiles will fall away.

We read in Jesus’s prophesy, the time that is coming next in Luke 21:25-28: 25 “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; 26 men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 27 Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 28 Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

The great tribulation at the end of the age is near, and Jesus told us to watch. Paul warns us about this time, also. He says to Gentile Christians “Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off.” Why did God not spare the natural branches? Because of their unbelief in Messiah Jesus. Why would God cut-off the grafted-in branches? Because they reject the Word of the Messiah Jesus, who said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments,” and who said about those in the judgment who say “Lord, Lord,” but do not do what He says, He will tell them, “depart from me you who practice lawlessness.”

This is a free-will decision that each of us need to make. We know from Revelation 14:12 that the saints who endure are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This is a testimony of two, which establishes this as the eternal Truth of God. If God can cut off natural branches who turn their backs on Him, He can cut off grafted-in wild branches that turn their back on Him. We continue in God’s kindness by doing His will, with the help of the Holy Spirit. God always forgives the truly repentant, though, and so now is the time to repent. Paul prophesies this time we’re living in by saying, “They also [the Jews], if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.” This is what is happening today. Jews around the world are being grafted back in to their faith as more and more Gentile Christians fall away. The age of the Gentiles seems likely to be coming to a close, which means the End is near.

It is far more natural for natural branches to be dwelling in the canopy of the grand Olive Tree that is Israel. We are present among the Jews in the one Olive Tree on account of God’s kindness toward us, though also to provoke the Jews to jealousy. We were grafted contrary to nature into God’s Olive Tree, and we rest among the branches when we recognize that the root supports us, both us grafted-in branches and the Jews who are being grafted back in. It behooves all of us to look to Scripture and embrace the Word of God, both the written form of it as well as the living iteration that came in the flesh, and died for our sin, and rose from the dead to make a way for us into Heaven, telling us to follow Him. If we truly follow Him, then we will do as He did, up to including giving our live on a cross. He paved the way, but this narrow path is one that He asks us to walk with Him.

Day 16: “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.” “This is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:25-36

Paul says “a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;,” and this is what I referred to regarding the previous verses. Many Jews actually became believers in Yeshua, and thus were saved by Him. Then, the Gospel went out to Gentiles second, and the fullness of Gentiles is going to be reached at some point before Jesus returns, and then, “all Israel will be saved.” Israel is made up of Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus as the Messiah and keep the commandments of God. This is the Israel that is going to be saved in its completion, according to my belief in the meaning of today’s verses. Consider again what Jesus said, in John 8:39: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.” To be of Israel, the children of promise through Isaac and Jacob, one must have faith in God and then act on that faith in God by doing what He wills. The deliverer, Jesus will come from Zion, and He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. There will be no more unrighteousness, because all of those who are lawless will be destroyed.

The covenant to take away our sins is the New Covenant, which Jesus brought to all who believe in Him and do His will. Anyone who disagrees with the Gospel is an enemy of the Lord, no matter who they are, Jew or Gentile, but hereditary Jews who are not saved are beloved for the sake of their fathers, and their position as a chosen people is irrevocable. The Jews who descended from Jacob are still highly regarded and special people to God, and thus as Gentiles, we are grafted-in to their nation; they do not come into “our church,” if you will. Thus, Jesus will reach the Jews before He comes; He will lead many of them to accept Him as the Messiah before He comes. Remember He said to them, “you will not see me again until you say blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.” As Gentiles fall away more and more in these Last Days, Jews will start calling on the name of the Lord more and more until the day He comes on the clouds; the day of the Father’s choosing. Will there be any faith left on the Earth?

This prophesy from Paul seems to align with Ezekiel 47:21-23, which is an End Time prophesy: “‘Thus you shall divide this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. It shall be that you will divide it by lot as an inheritance for yourselves, and for the strangers who dwell among you and who bear children among you. They shall be to you as native-born among the children of Israel; they shall have an inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel. And it shall be that in whatever tribe the stranger dwells, there you shall give him his inheritance,’ says the Lord God.” You see, Israel will be the eternal inheritance of anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord, whether Jew or Greek. Thus both the native-born Israelite and the stranger (Gentile) who dwells among Israel, and bears children/fruit among them, will have an inheritance in the Kingdom of God. This passage also explains how Jesus will save “all Israel,” whether they are native-born Messianic Jews or Gentiles who have been grafted-in by faith.

God’s ways are beyond our complete understanding, but we ought to understand Him by studying His Word and seeking Him with all faith. God will indeed show mercy and impart His knowledge and wisdom to all who come to Him, and if He truly is going to save all Jews who live at the End, then He will provide a way for that choice to be undeniable for them, and I think this is possible. And, if He is to save all who have been grafted-in to Israel, whether Jew or Greek, then this passage takes on its full meaning. All who choose to obey Him by repenting for their disobedience and calling on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved and will receive God’s mercy. To me, this is what makes the most sense from this passage. Nevertheless, from God, through God and to God are all things. His judgments and ways are beyond us; we are not to judge the eternal disposition of anyone’s soul. This is up to God and God alone when He sits on that Great White Throne on Judgment Day, Yeshua Hamashiach, who has all the power and authority of God because He is God. To Him be the Glory forever!

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Part 3 of 3, 2022 Commentary on the Book of Romans
Romans 12, Romans 13, Romans 14, Romans 15, Romans 16

Day 1
Reading Romans 12-16 quickly reveals quite a bit of truth that requires intense study, but here is one thing I’ll emphasize today: Paul taught the same thing as Jesus, and we know that Jesus taught us the structure of the faith, which is love God and love one another. Love is the key to unlocking the meaning of all Scripture. If we do not love God, we won’t keep His commandments, but if we do love God, we will keep them, but with a new understanding in the Holy Spirit that brings interpretation through the lens of love. If we do not love each other, we won’t keep the commandments to this effect, but if we do love each other, we will keep God’s commandments about how to do this, because while “love” itself is the key to unlocking the meaning of Scripture, it is certainly not defined except by the Scripture itself.

We can not know what it means to love our neighbor if we don’t know the commandment, “though shall not covet your neighbor’s wife….” Now, I can get rather elaborate with this analogy, but won’t. You don’t know how to fully love God if you don’t apply it to remembering to keep the Sabbath Day holy and not worshipping anything besides Him.

Yes, all these commandments can be summed up with “love,” and love is indeed the key to understanding them, but without the underlying commandments themselves, how do we understand the meaning of love. Is it OK for a 50 year old man to marry a 10 year old boy? Isn’t that love? Well, not according to the commandments; for such an act is forbidden. We interpret the commandments through the summary lens of love, but we don’t know love without the commandments. The commandments are God’s love language to us.

Paul does not say otherwise, and in fact, he finishes this letter with words that are quite similar to mine, and I’ll finish today with the same: “Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.” Romans 16:25-27 We have faith in Jesus, and so we obey God’s commandments through faith.

Day 2
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.” Romans 12:1-8

The meat in Romans 12:1-8 is intense, and it starts off with the reality that we must follow Yeshua. As we learned in Hebrews 9:12: “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood [Jesus] entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” Christ’s sacrifice on the cross ended the sacrifices of bulls, goats, lambs, rams, calves and the like. His sacrifice became a one-time sacrifice for all time, so never again would we need to sacrifice animals to obtain redemption or forgiveness, and the animals couldn’t even accomplish atonement before the sacrifice of Messiah. They were a prophetic template for what was to come; namely, the sacrifice of our perfect Passover Lamb, and our unleavened bread of life on the cross for our atonement, “once for all.” And yet, Jesus asked us: “pick up your cross and follow Me.” Which means that we must present our own bodies as a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, up to and including our own death on the cross, if that is what it takes to truly follow the Lord in our life.

It’s not just self-sacrifice that He desires, but our spiritual service of worship. We are to come before God the Son as He sits as the right hand of the Father, where He makes intercession for us, with all faith, because of the mercy He has given to us through His death on the cross. We ought to worship Him in the way He desires us to worship Him, which He explains throughout Scripture, but particularly in Leviticus 23. We must celebrate His feasts and His Holy Days. This is a reasonable service; this is a reasonable “service of worship.” It is what He asks of us, His children, to do because we love Him. He so longs for us to be with Him and to come close to Him, and He explains exactly how we ought to do that. Honestly, it’s the least we can do if our heart is with Him to worship Him in the way He has instructed, rather than by the dictates of our own heart, or by the tradition of the elders. “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition,” He says in Mark 7:9. His way is a better way.

You see, we are not to be conformed to this world, and the way most people do things, or to the flesh, and the way of sin and death, but we are to renew our mind daily in the Word of God, by reading what He has said to us, by hearing His voice, and with the Holy Spirit and the key of love, we can prove what the will of God is in our lives, because of the fruit that it produces, and we know that the will of God is good, acceptable and perfect, because God’s will is explained in His Scripture over and over and over again. Jesus says in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” If we want to hear Jesus’s voice, we ought to read His Word, because that is what He uses to speak to us. Now, He may also speak to us through His Holy Spirit, through other people, in a vision, in a dream, through prophecy or any number of other ways, but it all starts with His Word. Would we even know who He is if it was not for the Word of God? The Word of God is good, acceptable and perfect. It produces fruit in the lives of those who listen to it, and obey, by the power of the Holy Spirit, with love.

It is because of the grace that God has afforded to us through the death and resurrection of Christ on the cross, a free gift that we could never earn, that we ought to be humble in the work that we do for the Lord. As we read in Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” And so hearing the Lord’s voice and doing what he asks does not save us; His grace alone saves us. We ought to do His will and bear fruit by obeying His Word because of our salvation. In Ephesians, Paul writes that we are not saved “of ourselves,” but it is “the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Here in Romans he writes, “For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.” It doesn’t matter what good we do, or what evil before we are saved, we are all saved by grace.

But it does matter what we do once we have been saved. Paul writes here that we ought to “think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” Now, he’s about to get into the several Spiritual gifts, and he makes it clear that we do not each receive all of them, but each of us receives one or some of them. However, he is using this phrase as a bridge between his previous thoughts and the next ones. We have sound judgment by reading God’s Word and understanding HIs commandments. We live out these commandments in our lives through our faith, as the Holy Spirit directs us in love. As we have read in James 1:22, “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” and in James 2:17, “Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” and James 2:24: “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” To have sound judgement (yes, we are supposed to judge others in the church—see 1 Corinthians 5), we must read the Word of God and do it.

Sound judgment requires knowledge of God’s will; it requires practicing God’s will, and it requires faithfulness, which is hearing the voice of God through His Word, and then doing what He has asked. Why? Not to earn salvation, no! But because we are grateful for the gift of grace we have received for our salvation, and we are grateful for the promises that Jesus has given to us, that those who endure in their faith in Him and obey His commandments will inherit eternal life. It is because we love Him that we keep His commandments. Yet, we do not compare each other and boast about our works, but we live in humility, full-well knowing that all of us were dead men and women until the blood of Christ washed over us, and even though our sins were as scarlet, He has made them white as snow. We therefore boast in Christ, we boast in His sacrifice, we boast in God and His Word, for it is good, it is perfect, and it is something we must fully accept and adopt into our lives. We can’t do it on our own, but with God, all things are possible.

Regarding the Body itself, each member who calls upon the name of Yeshua and does His will has their own strengths and weaknesses in the faith. This is why we come together, as we read in Hebrews 10:23-25: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” We come together to strengthen each other, because each member has their own function in the Body of Messiah, which is Israel. Without a toe, a man can’t walk straight, and may even stumble greatly. Such a seemingly insignificant member can bring great disorder to the body. Likewise, even the most seemingly insignificant member of the Body of Christ can have the biggest impact.

Consider the story of Mary King, the “stout and sturdy cook at Newmarket Academy in Cambridge, England.” “A young teenager named Charles Haddon Spurgeon enrolled there in the fall of 1849,” and “over the next two years, King would feed the boy far more than food. Spurgeon says, “I do believe I learnt more from her than I should have learned from any six doctors of divinity of the sort we have nowadays.” It wasn’t just her faith that she taught to Spurgeon, though. “She was a woman of vital godliness who lived strongly as well as fed strongly. “There are some Christian people who taste, and see, and enjoy religion in their own souls, and who get at a deeper knowledge of it than books can ever give them, though they should search all their days.” Spurgeon said King was one of these, and that this cook “taught [him] theology.” Known by many as “the prince of preachers” for how many souls he led to Christ, Spurgeon was taught by this humble cook.

So what function do you have for the Body of Christ? Have you borne fruit? Have you done the work that God has asked of you? Have I? These ought to be introspective questions we all must ask, but I also ask by way of a challenge for your own meditation, as we walk humbly before our God. We all bring different things to the table, we all have different gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us by His grace. And yes, we each have one or a handful of spiritual gifts, but we don’t necessarily have all of them. For what good would we present to the Body if we fulfill the whole body of Christ on our own? And so it is clear from Paul’s writing that prophesy, service, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, showing mercy to others, among other spiritual gifts such as tongues and interpretation, are not gifts that every Christian receives, nor are they all works that every Christian does. We each have been given a measure of faith according to the works that the Lord wills for us in our lives. We ought to remember this, and come together as as Body so that the Lord can fill in any gaps in our faith. Together, as One Body of Christ, we are able to fulfill the works of the Lord.

Day 3: “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:9-21

Every one of these short truths from Romans 12:9-21 comes from the Torah and the Prophets; it is God’s law in very quick form, taught by Paul, one of its experts. For instance, we read in Amos 5:15: “Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the LORD, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph." This is “let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good,” as Paul writes. The Lord is indeed gracious to those who call upon the name of Yeshua, who confess with their mouth and believe in their heart that He is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who came in the flesh and died for our sins, rising from death, because “death could not contain Him,” so that we could follow Him into eternal life.

We might find this whole section from Romans in Psalm 119 if we look for it. Check out this section from verses 66-71: “Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe Your commandments. Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep Your word. You are good, and do good; Teach me Your statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me, But I will keep Your precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in Your law. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, That I may learn Your statutes.” We could turn to Torah to learn God’s heart that we “be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” Jesus said, “there is none who is good except God.” And God has taught us what is good. “If you want to inherit life, keep the commandments,” He said to us.

Leviticus 19:15-18 is so similar: “‘You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. … ‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” Isn’t this patient in tribulation … given to hospitality, and so forth, repaying no one evil for evil but instead having regard for the good things in the sight of all men, even blessing those who persecute us?

It’s not our place to avenge ourselves, but rather to allow the Lord to do this. The Lord will bring vengeance on our enemies on the Last Day, it is our duty as part of the Great Commission to love them, just as our Lord so many time instructs, so that we can inherit the Kingdom on the Last Day. By doing what is right by our enemy, we “heap coals of fire on his head.” This describes conviction, which brings “godly sorrow,” and then repentance. Repentance is what we all need to know the Lord intimately. It is the very beginning of our humility. If we can convince others to repent and hear the good news of Jesus Christ, that is the beginning of their reconciliation with God and perhaps they may even join us in our walk with the Lord?

“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, and you would refrain from helping it, you shall surely help him with it.” (Exodus 23:4-5). Whether speaking to us through His prophets or when He came in the flesh, our Lord is One God who taught us the same Truth. He said, “Love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” There is no disparity between the Testaments, for it is the same Gospel throughout. Our Lord Jesus invites us to follow His example, to do as He did, and to love as He loved, even sacrificial love that ends on the cross. Whatever it takes to put the Kingdom of God first in our lives.

We can’t be wise in our own opinion. This by no means has anything to do with our conversations about the Word of God, but rather about our departure from it. For who knows the heart of a man? God does! It is desperately wicked, and our own way may seem right to us, but it leads to death. Only God’s way leads to life. Do we choose life? Then we ought to obey God and keep our faith in Jesus. This is man’s all. I borrow verses from the whole of Scripture, but you see it is the same message throughout. “If it is possible as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. … overcome evil with good.” Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, take care of each other’s needs, make room for those who need help … this is the life of a Christian man or woman, as it was the life God gave to the Jews. Only with the Holy Spirit helping us as we live in Christ can we fulfill this Torah, as Jesus did. Thanks be to God!

Day 4: “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.” Romans 13:1-7

Romans 13 can be among the more confounding areas of all of Paul’s writing, but it all comes down to one very simple point he makes: “rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. … [government] is a minister of God to you for good.” So what happens when it isn’t? Well, we have Paul’s own example to live up to. Paul was wrongly imprisoned multiple times, and went along with the punishments in an attempt to bring the prison guards, the magistrates and even the rulers themselves into knowledge of the Truth. Our behavior always ought to be such that our government cannot possibly justly punish us for it, but they may still unjustly punish us for it, and we need to be OK with that as Christians. You ought to notice one key point here: Paul was imprisoned, which means that he violated the law or a command of a ruling authority or some rule that landed him there in the first place. Peter says, “we must obey God rather than man.” Paul’s writing here is not to OBEY the governing authority, but to be subject to the governing authorities, for the glory of God. Who knows who might be saved on account of our goodly behavior, according to God’s will.

I produced a Bible study that is quite thorough on this topic for those who still struggle with this issue: https://odysee.com/@FirstFruitsMinistries:b/Give-to-God-What-is-Gods:5.

Let me give you a modern example: The COVID Vaxx has aborted fetal cells used in its development, at the very least, and it hijacks a person’s God-given cellular machinery to create an unnatural protein that doesn’t belong in your body. There are deeper spiritual points we could hit on; that there is idolatry involved in taking the vaxx, for instance. As far as Scripture is concerned, it is not something any Christian could put into his or her body and say at the same time they put Christ first in their lives (https://odysee.com/@FirstFruitsMinistries:b/BiblicalTakeOnCovidVaccine:0). If you have gone forward with this, repent. God is faithful to forgive. But to be subject to the governing authorities means to exclude yourself from the world on account of this evil, to give up your job if an exemption fails, to be willing to walk away from whatever is necessary to avoid violating God’s commandment, to face any punishment, to miss out on anything and everything, to bear any witness, and to speak the Truth in love, rather than hate. It’s not easy, but that is what Paul is talking about.

Three other points: 1) God uses government to judge a sinful and immoral nation, and thus if we have bad government, it is on account of our own departure from the Word of God as a culture. We get the government we deserve, and so the answer to bad government is to repent on account of our countrymen, and to speak out the Truth, with love, to try and bring the people back into alignment with God’s will. (Ezekiel 14, Daniel, 2 Chronicles 7:14, etc.) 2) God will judge the men and women who control an evil government. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil.” God brought Nebuchadnezzar to his knees and made him like a wild beast on account of his evil pride; He will bring down any antichrist who tries to elevate himself above God. 3) In America, we are responsible for our government, and to be subject to the governing authorities, it is our duty to be informed voters and support candidates who are in line with Biblical values. If we don’t do this, then we are responsible for the evil in government that results.

If we simply go about in this world and keep our faith in Christ and our obedience to God, then there is nothing we ought to fear, period, even if by so doing we violate the immoral laws of men. If we must disobey the immoral laws of men, then we should do so with love and humility, not scorn or bitterness. We should expect to be punished, and take the punishment with all joy, for to be persecuted for our love of Christ is a clear sign that we are indeed adopted sons of God (Hebrews 12). However, if we do what is evil, we ought to be afraid. God uses government to punish the disobedient, and if for whatever reason the government itself has become evil, then we had better be like Noah, Job, or Daniel if we have any hope of making it to the Kingdom of God. God will destroy any evildoer that government does not punish.

Whether you believe taxation is theft is irrelevant, for it is clear in Scripture that we ought to pay our taxes, and whatever else is due to government, even if we believe it is unjust or goes to an unjust cause. In America, while we still can, we ought to get involved to change what is unjust, either by supporting godly men or running for office ourselves and changing it from the inside. God will sort everything out in the end, but in the meantime, we ought to subject ourselves to the authority of God and His law as well as whatever government happens to be appointed over us.

As God has appointed some to be pastors, others teachers and others rulers in the church, we most assuredly ought to subject ourselves to church leadership, again, so long as their teaching aligns with the Word of God. The church was never meant to be a bottom-up organization, but rather should be governed by elders who are due deference, love, and respect to ensure we are kept on track in our lives according to God’s will.

Day 5 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near. Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.” Romans 13:8-14

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Being God in the flesh, He made it quite clear which commandments He was referring to; namely, all of them. He also said to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength and to love your neighbor as your self,” indicating that these two summary commandments comprise the whole of the law and the prophets. It’s true. If you truly love God, you’ll obey His commandments, and the Holy Spirit will help you do it, because He has written the law on your hearts. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you will obey God’s commandments pertaining to loving other people. It will not come naturally, but the Holy Spirit will convict you and lead you as you read the Word of God.

It is impossible to understand the commandments with this filter of love if we do not read the Word of God, however. Jesus said two things that are relevant to this discussion: Matthew 5:18: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Matthew 24:35: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” In other words, the law of God, which was given to Moses, is eternal. There is bountiful evidence in Scripture that the law preexisted its articulation on Mt. Sinai, for how would Noah know a clean or unclean animal if it was not? The Word of God, whether it came out of Yeshua’s mouth prior to His incarnation, or whether it came out of His mouth when He was living in the flesh, is life to us. We must learn it and know it to the extent that the Holy Spirit can direct us by it as we are in the moments of our days.

In Matthew 5, Jesus went into some detail about the gravity of the commandments written on our heart. It is NOT enough to simply avoid adultery, but to look at a woman with lust is also adultery, a sin worthy of death. The letter gets more intense when it is written on your heart. Let’s look at more specific examples of this law to help us understand it’s implications. Deuteronomy 22:22-30 is very specific about various sexual sins: Verse 22 is about adultery as we know it, “a man lying with the wife of another man.” The punishment? Both shall die. In Spirit and Truth, we have to think about this “death penalty” not as being literal physical death, although perhaps it is that, but it is more about the punishment of “death” by God for sin. “Vengeance is mine, I shall repay,” He says. Willfully violating the law leads to the second death, and Jesus agrees. In Matthew 5, Jesus said things like, “it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish,” meaning your eye that looks at a woman with lust, “than for your whole body to be cast into hell.”

But in these Old Testament Scriptures we also see the love of God and the love of your fellow man on full display. Is it love to take another’s wife or another’s husband and violate them sexually? It’s lust, it’s a sin of the flesh, it objectifies both parties, and it’s a sin against God as well, for His law is clear on the matter, and a sin against your neighbor, whose spouse has been violated. To love our neighbor, we should not even look at the wife or husband of another, for the temptation itself is a sin that leads to death. Jesus says in Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” To look with lust and desire is sin worthy of death, because the look itself is what leads to sin.

There are two powerful examples in Scripture. Potiphar’s wife in Genesis 39 “caught [Joseph] by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But [Joseph] left his garment in her hand, and fled and ran outside.” He truly did not look with lust in his heart, and was blameless in his interaction with the woman, who was likely very attractive. In 2 Samuel 11, “David arose from his bed and walked on the roof … And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” He didn’t look away. “Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her.” We know from 1 Kings 15:5 that “David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.” The matter of Uriah the Hittite was when he gazed at Beersheba, Uriah’s wife, with lust in his eyes. It was enough to lead him into sin worthy of death. Thank God for repentance, which we see David seek earnestly in Psalm 51.

Continuing in Deuteronomy 22, consider verse 23, where “a betrothed virgin,” an engaged woman, meets with a man in the city, and they lie together. Both shall die again. This was the case of both David and Beersheba; they were both guilty of a sin worthy of death. Verse 24 says they ought to be put to death “because she did not cry for help in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbor’s wife.” Don’t let your modern sensibility get to you, but interpret in spirit and truth. The woman doesn’t cry out because she is seduced and is a willing participant in the adultery or fornication, as Beersheba was seduced by King David. She’s just as guilty as he is. Both have committed sins worthy of the second death, and repentance is the only way to salvation. David writes in Psalm 51: “Create in me a clean heart, Oh God! Renew a right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit.”

The next verses in Deuteronomy 22 make a distinction between willing fornication or adultery, which we’ve read about in previous verses, and rape, as follows: In verse 25, the man “seizes her and lies with her,” and verse 27 says “the betrothed young woman cried for help,” which makes it clear the act is not consensual. Scripture aligns with love, for “only the man who lay with her shall die, but you shall do nothing to the young woman, she has committed no offense punishable by death. For this case is like that of a man attacking and murdering his neighbor.” According to God’s Holy Word, rape and murder are equivalent sins, worthy of death. They are the opposite of love. The man who rapes is bound to suffer the second death, without repentance, and the woman who is a victim needs the love and support of her neighbors to help her recover from this heinous sin against her and against God.

Finally we see the case of the virgin who is not betrothed and a man fornicating in verses 28-30. The Biblical answer is simple. The man ought to ask the woman’s father for her hand in marriage, and in fact, he may not divorce her all his days. The two have become one flesh. These verses make clear Gods’ intention for sexual relations to be used within marriage alone. The intent of God’s law is love, and we can see what it means to love God and love your neighbor within these verses. You may think that you can deduce these truths from God’s grace alone, but if you look around at society today, even within the church itself, it is evident that the Holy Spirit does not simply convict people into following the law. We must be taught the law, and taught to obey it, or else we cannot possibly discern what it means to love our neighbor.

Any church that does not teach the law, you will find, will look very much like the depraved world around it. We cannot possibly lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light if we do not know what this means in practical terms. Sure, Paul talks about behaving properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife or jealousy, but the law explains in detail what all this means. When we read and study God’s Word, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ helps us to live out what we have learned, and this is how we build the knowledge that makes no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. It is on account of the grace that saves us from our life of sin and death that we can be victorious over sin, but without knowledge of sin, how can we possibly even consider obedience to the Spirit? Without the law, it is not possible to know God’s will for us. Without the Spirit, it is impossible to execute it. We need both.

When Paul writes, “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law,” we know what it means to do wrong to a neighbor because we have read and understood God’s law. Thus, God’s law guides us on what we ought to do and what we ought not do, and this is what it means to love. God’s law is God’s love language. Continuing, Paul says: “Do this, knowing the time,” meaning that we ought to keep the law with an understanding of what God’s love means in our lives, because we could die and meet Him at any time. He finishes, “salvation is nearer to us than when we believed,” which is interesting considering that he is writing instructions to saved Christians. Here, he means “salvation” in the sense of glorification, which occurs on the Last Day upon Christ’s return. In the meantime, while we await this day, we need to be found in obedience to God with all faith in Jesus, watching, keeping our temples clean and holy for the Lord.

Day 6: “Now accept the one who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his opinions. One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only. The one who eats is not to regard with contempt the one who does not eat, and the one who does not eat is not to judge the one who eats, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand. One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.” Romans 14:1-12

Romans 14 begins with Paul’s exhortation to encourage the Essenes not to err in doctrine, and to the rest of Christendom to not judge them for their belief in vegetarianism. Many attempt to extrapolate some modern meaning for this text, that somehow it is now OK to disregard God’s food laws, or even the Fourth Commandment, but Paul would never blaspheme God like that. The controversy is about the Essenes, who took Scripture out of context to say God commands vegetarianism, and everyone else, who would eat clean meats such as cattle, poultry and lambs or goats as well as vegetables. His point is that vegetarians and omnivores should worship God together and not segregate themselves, because Christ is not about whether we eat meat or only vegetables, but about the salvation of our souls. Paul would never say or even imply, however, that somehow all animals were now edible. Some animals, which were unclean before the law was even given to Moses, are not even considered meat. They are not food. Paul would never even think twice about this. Pigs, horses, dogs, cats, and the like never were, and they never will be food.

Besides the controversy brought on by the Essenes regarding their vegetarianism, there was another controversy regarding food in the early Church. Some Christians selected certain days of the week to fast, while others considered other days fast days. Some didn’t fast at all. Paul said for those who regard one fast day above another, let them be convinced in their minds. I currently fast on one particular day of the week with some brothers of mine in my church. Do I judge those who do not fast with me on that day? Of course not. “He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God. For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.” This was a controversy that even Jesus addressed, when John’s disciples asked why Jesus’s disciples don’t fast. Should we really be fighting about such things? Far from it. We ought to build each other up in Christ.

It’s important to note two things: 1) Romans 14 is all about controversy surrounding food, and nothing else. 2) Fast days, which are discussed here in Romans 14, are not commanded by God in Scripture, while other days such as the Sabbath and other Holy Convocations are commanded by God. Let us not grow confounded by Paul’s writing and believe he’s talking about these convocation days, for that could not be further from the truth. Let us not believe that Paul has suddenly changed his mind about clean and unclean meats. The Scripture of Romans 14 is clear. He’s talking about vegetarianism vs. people who eat clean meats and vegetables. While we can (and should) certainly adopt the long-suffering attitude of our God who tolerates sin to give us time to come to repentance, we ourselves must fully turn our hearts to do God’s will by obeying His commandments, because we love Him.

Let us make a distinction, as Paul does here, and as Jesus does in Mark 7, between the commandments of men and the commandments of God. We ought to follow God’s commandments, but not judge each other on how we keep the traditions of the elders. With time, the Word of God and the conviction of the Holy Spirit ought to do all the work, if a man or woman is truly in Christ. On the Last Day, every knee will bow to Yeshua, whether they are with Him or against Him. He will bring the rebellious to destruction, and those whose heart was to obey Him, He will cleanse. We will all give an account to God, and I for one want to make sure my heart is aligned with His will. I would not want to be in the shoes of anyone who rebels against the commands of Almighty God, for I too will be trembling before Him exclaiming, “have mercy on me, a sinner.” How can we be concerned about anything other than our own eternal disposition, except to encourage and exhort on another to strive for the prize of eternal life with our King.

Day 7: “Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother’s way. I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. For if because of food your brother is hurt, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy with your food him for whom Christ died. Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who in this way serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. So then we pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one another. Do not tear down the work of God for the sake of food. All things indeed are clean, but they are evil for the man who eats and gives offense. It is good not to eat meat or to drink wine, or to do anything by which your brother stumbles. The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves. But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” Romans 14:13-23

When Paul says that we ought not judge one another anymore, he’s being very specific. We should not judge one another about doubtful things, about things that God has not commanded. The Pharisees created all kinds of traditions that were not part of God’s law, and these traditions created stumbling blocks for other believers, because God had not commanded these things, but the followers wanted to fit in, and so they obeyed the Pharisees. Again, Jesus Himself speaks about this in Mark 7, how they forsook the commandments of God while upholding the commandments of men. Too many Christians do this very thing today, while my desire is to call people back to “obey God rather than men,” as Peter said in Acts. Paul writes the same thing here; we ought not create stumbling blocks in our brother’s way.

Of critical importance, Paul says quite the opposite thing—it would seem to the one without eyes to see—in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13: “I wrote to you in my epistle not to keep company with sexually immoral people. Yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now I HAVE WRITTEN TO YOU NOT TO KEEP COMPANY WITH ANYONE NAMED A BROTHER, who is sexually immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or an extortioner—not even to eat with such a person. For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore “put away from yourselves the evil person.”

What then? Does Paul contradict himself? Hardly. Paul is saying the same thing in both letters. He instructs us not to judge outsiders, for that is God’s role. However, he instructs us without question to judge Christians in the church when it comes to obedience or disobedience to God’s law. In fact, anyone who is a brother who wilfully and continually sins against God’s law must be thrown out of the church. When it comes to doubtful things, things that are not God’s law, we are not to judge, not even our brothers. We do not want to create an artificial man-made stumbling block that God has not commanded and potentially send a brother off track.

Regarding Paul’s next statement, that nothing is unclean in itself, he refers to the context of the chapter and what he’s writing about. Specifically, whether we’re talking about clean meats or vegetables, fast days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or fast days on Mondays and Wednesdays, or even eating bread with unwashed hands. God doesn’t have anything to say about any of these things. It is doubtful whether there is any rule on it at all, but there certainly isn’t anything that rises to the level of excommunication. Now, I would never even use the Levitical 11 food laws to cast a brother out of the Church, even though they are the law of God, unless a brother flatly ignored the law and flaunted their rebellion against it among the fellowship of believers. We certainly teach that God’s law is still valid, and we keep the Levitical 11 food laws, but we leave it up to the conviction of the Holy Spirit to teach the law of God each Sabbath, and not our own forceful rhetoric. Is it a sin that leads to death to eat pork? I can tell you this, after reading Isaiah 66, I would not want to meet Jesus after consuming a ham sandwich, but each brother must come to their own conclusion.

It is ultimately my heart to obey God in every matter that I can possibly conceive of. I don’t want to leave any room for doubt. I don’t want to give the world or my flesh a single inch. My God is Jesus; my god is not my belly. If God says not to eat certain foods, who am I to question Him? Paul is not God, and He has no authority to change the law of God. Thus, I do not believe that he is even contemplating doing that here. At every instance where Jews accuse Paul of going against the law of Moses, Paul makes a strong case that he is not doing that in any way, nor is he teaching it. And so he isn’t doing that here, either. In any case, “the kingdom of God is not eating or drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” To me, this means obedience to God’s commandments with the help of the Holy Spirit, but not in any way adherence to any of man’s laws. The first is life everlasting, and the latter is pride.

So why would we go after brothers who eat only vegetables, or brothers who like to eat clean meats and vegetables and say anything disparaging about this? Our church has many vegans in it, but we are not vegan. We eat meat every Shabbat, while our vegan friends eat vegan. My wife and I even prepare vegan dishes so there is extra food for our brothers and sisters who come to the church and prefer that type of food. We are living out a Romans 14 church. That being said, we would not allow anyone to bring pork or shellfish into the home or church. There is a distinction between what is holy and acceptable to God and what is not, but there is no distinction between the food preferences of brothers and sisters who eat different types of clean food. “Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil.” Pork is not a good thing, as defined by God’s law, but clean meat or only vegetables is a different story. Either is good, and either preference is good.

In any case, we ought to have patience even with people who still prefer bacon and sausage for their morning breakfast. Is it worth tearing them down on account of their inability to give up something they enjoy? Would we cast out the man who was struggling to give up porn, or the woman who gossips after church about the private lives of other congregants? The answer is: It depends. We ought to follow Matthew 18 principles, and discuss the sin privately with our brother or sister, then with a small group, and then with the whole church. If a brother or sister refuses to give up sin, they ought to be cast out of the church. If they are trying to give it up and are struggling to overcome, then we ought to be long-suffering as our God is long-suffering. He shows us an example of what it means to hate the sin, but love the sinner. If someone gloats about eating pork, perhaps they should not be part of a community that keeps the laws of God? These things are “evil for the man who eats and gives offense.”

“It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything by which your brother stumbles.” Do you enjoy an adult beverage once in a while? Great. Should you drink it at a church fellowship meal next to a brother suffering from alcoholism? God forbid! Now, should you drink 8 beers every night until you pass out? Absolutely not! The drunkards, Jesus tells us, are not going to make it to Heaven. And if we read Isaiah 66 critically, you will note that the question remains about those who eat unclean meats. I repeat: I would not want to be one who cannot or refuses to give up these things in rebellion to the law of God. I just don’t want to take that risk. My heart is to obey the Lord in all things, and the Holy Spirit has led me to this point. What about you? That is between you and God, but I will not hesitate to explain to you how I interpret the Word of God, for it is my duty before God to do so. Whatever is not from faith is sin, and it is my strong conviction that if we love Jesus, we ought to fully obey the law out of a strong desire to please Him. For me, I would have it no other way.

Day 8: “Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.” For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God. For I say that Christ has become a servant to the circumcision on behalf of the truth of God to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles to glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, “Therefore I will give praise to You among the Gentiles, And I will sing to Your name.” Again he says, “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people.” And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, And let all the peoples praise Him.” Again Isaiah says, “There shall come the root of Jesse, And He who arises to rule over the Gentiles, In Him shall the Gentiles hope.” Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:1-13

How do we know what is good for ourselves or good for others? Are we so full of pride as to believe we know ourselves? Even if we have the Holy Spirit in us, how do we test to make sure it is not our own heart, which we know is “desperately wicked”? Paul tells us the answer: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” God has told us what is good. Micah 6:8 says, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” This is how we bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves: We teach righteousness from the Word of God, despite the persecution that results from it. We ought to please our neighbor for his edification, by teaching him out of the Torah and Prophets so he can obtain more knowledge of what God wants for us. The Gospel only becomes real for unbelievers if they first know the law, which condemns them. How can you know sin without it? How can you know righteousness? It is not possible.

As Paul wraps up his letter, he prays, “Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We read in Philippians 2:2-11 “fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

We must have a mind of perseverance and encouragement to share in this mindset. Our flesh rebels against it. In Matthew 26:41, Jesus says, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” To glorify the Lord God our Father, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). It is in this that we must encourage one another and persevere, because it is not difficult to live like the rest of the world. With the Holy Spirit, it is still difficult to keep the law of God, and without it, it’s impossible. All New Testament apostles encourage our endurance, for without it, we may fall away. Our brothers and sisters in Christ need encouragement, also, and without it, they will fall away. This is why Paul exhorts us to encourage our fellow workers in Christ, and to persevere in our own walk.

When we are in one accord, pursuing the Lord and His will for us with all of our hearts, we ought to accept our fellow workers who are doing the same. For those who weak in their faith, they need us to stand by and build them up, to pour the Word of God into them, and to bring them along gently to peel them away from the world and the flesh. Whether Jew or Greek, we must focus our entire mission on unity in Christ. This is not a unity that accepts all things and permits all teachings, but one that patiently and lovingly teaches the Truth and waits for those who are pursuing it. As Gentiles, it is our duty to reachout to our Jewish brothers about their Messiah, teaching them how He said to uphold the law, and did so Himself, but that we need His grace or we won’t make it. It is by keeping the commandments that we bring them to jealousy, not by rebelling against them—the Jews already got that part down. We must abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit, following Jesus (not Paul) in all his ways, and teach what is good and true from the Holy Scriptures.

Day 9: “And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another. But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ. And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man’s foundation; but as it is written, “They who had no news of Him shall see, And they who have not heard shall understand.”” Romans 15:14-21

Paul had his own mission, largely to the Gentiles, among the several apostles, and as he is writing to the leaders of the church in Rome, he wants to make sure they are left with a strong enough foundation to continue to build the Temple of God after he has been taken. He has confidence that the Gentiles he has taught are full of “the goodness” and “all knowledge,” which is understood by reading and understanding the Torah and the prophets, so that they can “admonish one another,” or correct each other according to the law of God. This he sees as important, through the grace of God to cover their sins and imperfections, so that they may be acceptable to God and therefore sanctified by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to those who are seeking Jesus with all their heart to help them keep the ways of God (John 14). Only those who obey God’s commandments and keep their faith in Jesus can be sanctified in this way, getting closer to God; more holy every day.

Paul continues to praise our Lord Jesus Christ for the mission that he worked through Paul; Paul gives the Holy Spirit all the credit for any good work that was done through him. That work; however, resulted in the “obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed.” He repeats, the Gentiles’ obedience was on account of the power of the Holy Spirit, for Jesus said he would send the Holy Spirit to help us keep His commandments. However, the designs of the Gentiles’ hearts—even our own thoughts and intentions—must choose to obey the leading of the Spirit, we must choose to obey the commandments of God, we must choose to follow Christ. Absent this choice, the Spirit will not lead us in the ways of God.

The signs and wonders, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, are meant to bring faith to those who don’t have it; they are meant to edify, not to dazzle. We ought to wait on God as Paul did and to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. If there is any spiritual gift for us to exercise, it ought to be used to spread the faith to those who don’t believe or expand the faith of those who do believe.

Day 10: “'For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you; but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you' 'whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while— but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things. Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints; so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. Now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.' Romans 15:22-33

Here Paul is talking about being delayed from traveling to Rome on account of his ministry to the Gentiles, but soon he will be on his way there on account of his appeal to Caesar in Acts 25:11. This hadn’t happened yet, and as he writes to the Romans, he is preparing his trip to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost. There, despite his best effort to be rescued “from those who are disobedient in Judea,” he falls victim to their conspiracies and ends up inRoman custody. Even though Paul had planned to make his way to Rome after visiting Jerusalem, through Spain, God would get him there another way. The chronology in Acts is fabulous in the way that it reveals how the Holy Spirit worked through Paul’s afflictions to bring the Gospel to Jewish leaders, such as King Agrippa, and Roman governors like Felix and Festus, and now he was on his way to Rome to stand before the Emperor for preaching about Jesus. What an opportunity to spread the Gospel! Paul teaches us, “in all things, rejoice,” and “to live is to live for Christ and to die is gain.” He uses every possible scenario, whether positive or negative from a worldly perspective, to fulfill God’s purposes for His life. Paul truly did give everything he had for the Gospel, a model of what being Christian ought to look like.

Day 11: “I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well. Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles; also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia. Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me. Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved. Greet Apelles, the approved in Christ. Greet those who are of the household of Aristobulus. Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord. Greet Tryphaena and Tryphosa, workers in the Lord. Greet Persis the beloved, who has worked hard in the Lord. Greet Rufus, a choice man in the Lord, also his mother and mine. Greet Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobas, Hermas and the brethren with them. Greet Philologus and Julia, Nereus and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints who are with them. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you.” Romans 16:1-16

I wonder whether Paul is sending all these folks to Rome with his letter or whether these people are those he already knows who are there? In any case, Paul has many fellow workers indeed, and we too ought to greet and love one another in this way. Jesus said we would know we are His disciples if we have love for one another.

Day 12: “Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them. For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. For the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent and what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Timothy my fellow worker greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen. I, Tertius, who write this letter, greet you in the Lord. Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother. [The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.] Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.”
Romans 16:17-27

Paul packs a punch at the end of his letter, warning again against false prophets who would teach another Jesus; namely, a Jesus who is contrary to how Scripture describes what He did and said and who He is, according to the law and the prophets. God warns us all throughout Scripture about these people, who teach “dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you have learned.” Ezekiel warns about false prophets in chapter 13 of his book. Isaiah also warns about them and so does Jeremiah. Paul warns against these “wolves in sheep’s clothing” in Acts, and Jesus warned about them in the Gospels. We should take these warnings very seriously. In Matthew 7:13-23, Jesus said regarding “wolves in sheep’s clothing,” “You will know them by their fruits.” While the tree itself (the wolf) will bear bad fruit, Jesus said, if you follow such a teacher, you too could bear bad fruit, and “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Many who say “Lord, Lord,” will not make it into Heaven on account of following these false teachers and practicing lawlessness.

The false teachers do two things, as we learn from the context of Jesus’s teaching: 1) They walk through a “wide gate” on a “broad road” that “leads to destruction.” In other words, their behavior looks just like the world. Their actions and their words are identical to those who live in the world and are of the world. They might be pastors who say “Lord, Lord,” but they watch porn at night or have adulterous relationships, for example. They might be church ladies who say all the right things in front of others, but privately harbor hate and resentment in their heart toward their fellow churchgoers. They may be folks who consciously reject the law of God in rebellion. A follower of Jesus ought to speak and act like Jesus did, obeying the commandments of God, trusting in Jesus, loving God and loving everyone around him, whether friend or foe. This is the narrow and difficult way that leads to life. 2) They practice lawlessness. As teachers, they might teach that the commandments of God don’t apply to us any longer. We ought not wonder why so many churches cannot be distinguished from the world. It is because of this false teaching. This fruit is clearly contrary to the teaching which Jesus and the apostles taught.

We learn further that such men are slaves to their own appetites, whether for the purpose of fame or fortune, and they gather followers with smooth and flattering speech, by which they deceive the unsuspecting. Beware of those who tell you everything is going to be OK if you continue to live in sin. Beware of those who tell you that you can live like Hell and inherit Heaven. These are false teachers, just looking to increase the size of their church, thinking perhaps that the number of people who show up each week is related to how many people are being “saved.” In this, they may deceive even themselves. Some of the best churches around are small, persecuted and maybe even underground, depending on where they celebrate the Lord’s Day. This doesn’t mean that a large church is automatically deceived, or a small church is automatically righteous, but I am certainly wary of churches that are all about the numbers.

Paul returns to praising the brethren that he is writing to, writing, “the report of your obedience has reached to all; therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent and what is evil.” What are they obedient to? The will of God, of course, which is spelled out by His commandments and interpreted in Spirit and Truth through the example of Jesus. Paul rejoices in their obedience to God, but warns them again that they ought to know the difference between good and evil. The deceiver is after the elect, not the people he already has in his grasp. He wants to lead the righteous astray. We must watch. We must be discerning. We must endure, for at the appointed time, “the God of peace,” who is Jesus Christ, “will soon crush Satan under your feet.” For this reason, we must endure, and allow the grace of our Lord Jesus to reign in our lives.

As Paul finishes his letter, dictated it would seem to the man Tertius, who wrote down the words of Paul, he summarizes the whole of the letter and the whole of Truth. I paraphrase for clarity: Jesus is able to establish YOU as a saved man of God by His grace, according to faith in the Gospel and His own Word. Through the ministry of Jesus and the ministry of His apostles, with the Holy Spirit’s help, God has revealed His mysteries that were recorded in the Scripture by the prophets. He now calls the faithful, whether Jew or Greek, to walk by faith according to the commandments of the eternal God recorded in Scripture, but interpreted by Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and these commandments have now been made known to all the nations of the world. The grace that we receive through the Messiah’s sacrifice and resurrection ought to lead us to obedience to these commandments through faith and trust in the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, to whom belongs the glory forever.

End 2022 Commentary on the Book of Romans.

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2021 Commentary on the Book of Romans

2021 Commentary on Romans 1, Romans 2, Romans 3, Romans 4, Romans 5

Recall 2 Peter 3:16: Paul’s writing is difficult to understand, which those who are perishing misinterpret to their own destruction, and if you don’t read to the end of Chapter 3, you’ll miss the whole point of Paul’s introduction to his masterpiece. You cannot take one verse or even one section of Paul’s writing out of context and think you understand what he’s saying. If you do, you will fail, and you will be led astray. Romans is an expanded version of the Epistle to the Galatians, and it is far more clear when read in its entirety, but it can still confuse, and does confuse those not reading with a clear understanding of the whole of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Paul is writing to the Romans, the Gentiles as well as to the Jews who are in Rome. Recall that Pricilla and Aquila had come from there. Had they gone back to preach the Messiah? Did associates of theirs bring Christ there? Did another Apostle? We don’t know from reading this letter, but we know that Paul is writing to the already existent early Church in Rome.

With the context of his audience, being both Jew and Greek in Rome, Paul’s epistle is going to tackle the number one issue that has divided the Jews and Gentiles; namely, circumcision. In the time of Antiochus, the Jews learned to overemphasize circumcision because Antiochus sought to Hellanize the Jews, and many of them sought to remove the mark or minimize it to fit in with Greek culture. The Jews looking to adhere to their heritage thus separated themselves from those who were uncircumcised to protect themselves from literal heretics who were abandoning the commandments of God and adhering to the World.

But Yeshua would provide a better way to identify a believer or a non believer; in short, the Holy Spirit. Yeshua tore down the middle wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles and gave both salvation in His name. In Ephesians 2:14-16, we read: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.”

In Isaiah 43:19, God prophesied he was going to do this new thing: “Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert. The beast of the field will honor Me, The jackals and the ostriches, Because I give waters in the wilderness And rivers in the desert, To give drink to My people, My chosen. This people I have formed for Myself; They shall declare My praise.” God is talking about bringing Gentiles—the uncircumcised—into the Body of His Chosen People. This prophesy is confirmed in the vision the Holy Spirit gave to Peter in Acts 10 and 11: “Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” God wasn’t advising Peter to eat unclean foods, but rather to accept the uncircumcised gentiles into the Ecclesia, the congregation of Holy Spirit embodied believers.

Back to the point in Romans, we see Paul define the New Thing the Lord has done distinctly in 1 Corinthians 7:17-20: “But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.”

Don’t be confused. Circumcision is required to inherit the Kingdom of God, but as we see all throughout Galatians, it was not a circumcision of the flesh, but of the heart. Galatians 3:3 in particular makes this clear: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” Once you have received the circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit, can you make more perfect what God has already perfected? We see Paul explain this reality even further Ba This is all about the requirement of circumcision; it is no longer required. God prophesied this through Isaiah, He tore down this middle wall of separation signified by circumcision in Yeshua, and now He has clarified that both uncircumcised and circumcised are circumcised by the Spirit, and then walk together in Christ according to the law of God. The anointing of the Holy Sprit on unclean beasts, prophesied in Isaiah 43 and Acts 10 and 11, and interpreted in Colossians 2, and Galatians and Romans, shows us that our proof is the Spirit of God itself. Is it dwelling in you? Do you have a burning desire in your hearts to walk in the ways of God, to walk according to His commandments? That is the Spirit of God in you, and it is the anointing that was promised. Whether or not you are descended from Jacob is irrelevant, have you been grafted in to Israel by the Power of the Holy Spirit? That is what matters. The Spirit of Torah will then become alive in your heart and you will desire with all of your heart to follow God’s law. We see in verses like Romans 2:13—“for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified”—Romans 3:31—“Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” and James 2—“faith without works is dead”—that God still calls us to obey His commandments. Better yet, go back to Matthew 5:18-19, and hear from Yeshua: “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” God has done a new thing by pouring out the anointing of His Holy Spirit on the uncircumcised, and He told us He was going to do this ahead of time. While the Fathers looked forward to the Messiah Yeshua for their salvation, our generation and many before us have looked back to the Messiah Yeshua for our salvation. His act was eternal, and so the faith in Him and obedience to the law is also eternal.

Circumcision was a significant and divisive sign between Jews and Gentiles. It was not part of the law as a required physical act of the flesh, but it was indeed a sign of the law, and still is. We obey the law when we are circumcised in our heart, by cutting out our worldly ways of sin, repenting (walking away from sin permanently), and moving forward without sin in all faith in Yeshua from justification forward, looking to obey His commandments from Genesis to Revelation in all things, for not one jot or tittle has been removed from the law. Paul, writing to the Romans, says the same thing. If we have boys, born on the eighth day, they ought to be circumcised. More important is the state we’re in when we come to know Yeshua, and at that point, circumcision of the heart is all the evidence needed to welcome a Gentile (or Jew) into the faith. It is evidence for the seal of the Holy Spirit. Yeshua said, “You will know them by their fruit.” Do they obey the law? If not, their fruit is bad.

And so as Paul shows us this very thing in the beginning of Romans, after his glamorous greeting that shows his affinity for the city governing the entire empire. If he can spread Christ there, then the entire empire could be converted. Can we still reach Washington, D.C.? Should we have the same joy as Paul to suffer as he did by trying? Paul notes that the Gospel of Christ is “the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘the just shall live by faith.’ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…” And so we see here the structure of the faith: That Christ came for all, Jew and Gentile alike, to save them from sin. And yet, the just shall live by faith, and as James writes, “faith without works [of the law] is dead.” Paul is saying that here, too. God’s wrath will destroy all “ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.”

Continuing, Paul notes that man is without excuse, for God’s invisible attributes are clearly seen, and what may be known of God is manifest in all flesh, and God has revealed Himself to us all in the things He has made as well as in His eternal power and Godhead. And yet, many among us, even among us Christians, refuse to recognize God for who He is, not giving thanks to Him, and not honoring His will in their lives, which He has clearly shown to us through His Word through Moses, which Jesus didn’t just uphold, but clarified and strengthened–it’s not the letter of the law that matters—which is often misinterpreted by Talmudic writings—as much as what’s in our heart. Do we love God, do we love our neighbor? Then we obey God and His law, not out of fear, but out of deep love and reverence and desire to be with the one who created us all. If one disobeys Him and follows after his or her own heart, offering lip service to some innocuous idea of faith or even follows after the written interpretations of the Rabbis throughout the generations, without love, that person is as good as dead, and Paul makes that clear, too: “their foolish hearts are darkened.”

Just like the Fathers who professed to be wise, yet became fools, they went after false gods, they mixed the holy with the profane, they combined pagan rites with holy concepts—“changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man (and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things”—, thinking that God wouldn’t mind. So many times God rejected Man’s ways, and reminded Man first through the prophets, and then through His own Son Yeshua HaMashiach that we ought to obey Him, and follow after His heart, and not follow after the desires of our own hearts. We recently read Mark 7, and there Yeshua makes it abundantly clear that He expects us to obey God and not Man. Next Paul makes one Old Testament reference after another, but this one is key: “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…” You might think the reference is to the prohibitions on homosexuality and lesbianism in Leviticus 18:22, and you’d be right, but it goes deeper than that. It is precisely because they “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator” that “God gave them up to vile passions.” Read Psalm 81:12: “So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart, To walk by their own plans.” Read Job 8:4: “When your children sinned against Him, He gave them over to their rebellion.” Or better yet, read Isaiah 44:18: “They do not comprehend or discern, for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see and closed their minds so they cannot understand.” Best yet, read Jeremiah 7; this whole chapter is dedicated to exactly what Paul is talking about here. When we deliberately sin against God, He doesn’t just forsake us, He allows us to destroy ourselves. This is as true today as it ever was. “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you,” says the Lord.

Continuing, Paul gives us another laundry list of sin, as we should be accustomed to by now, explaining that sin begets sin and leads to death. He goes from lesbianism first, to homosexuality, and then to obstinance—“they did not like to retain God in their knowledge.” Do you see what rejecting the Word of God does to you? Paul tells you: “God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” This is what happens when you reject the Old Testament law; you fall into acceptance of this sin, whether practicing it yourself or letting others practice it without rebuke, and your whole society crumbles around you.

Paul doesn’t parse words: “Therefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.” Ah yes, “we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” and yes, we are all worthy of death. Paul indeed says this, but he also says this: “But we know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.” It’s God that judges the eternal disposition of the soul, and WE KNOW that He will judge according to His law anyone who practices these things. Do you think you will escape this judgement if you are “practicing such things, and doing the same”? You will not! If you think that, it is you who “despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering.” Don’t you know that the “goodness of God leads you to repentance?” It surely ought to, if you have any hope of redemption.

If you do not repent of sin and then go and sin no more, Paul explains: “in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds.” You simply aren’t going to make it. He grants “eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor and immorality.” That has to be who we are! “To those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also the Greek.”

Paul keeps going back and forth, which is why the writing can be confusing, but here’s the next line: “glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.” God doesn’t differentiate: To the one who sins and does not repent, He gives death. To the one who repents and walks in righteousness, He gives life. End of story. The law must be obeyed, and Jesus said the same thing: “If you love me, you will obey my commandments.” That means all of them.

And so when Paul goes into the law in the next section, this is where most people get confused. I want to take it line by line to explain:
“For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law,” => Those who don’t know the law and don’t keep it in their heart, they will die.
 “and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law” => If you know the law and don’t keep it, you’ll also be judged by it, and if you don’t repent, you will also die.
“for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified” => This is the same exact thing that James says: “faith without works is dead.” If you don’t keep the law, thus proving your faith, then you have no faith, and you will die in your sins.
“for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts” => In other words, these are Gentiles who have received the Holy Spirit of God, and through their faith in Jesus take on His nature. They understand the law just by hearing the Word of Jesus or His disciples and following in His example. They keep the law by following their Master. As James writes in Acts 15, these are the ones who will attend synagogue every Sabbath and learn the law of Moses to fill in the gaps where they have been ignorant. They then will follow that law, too.
“Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, …, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?…” => In other words, don’t be a hypocrite. If you teach the law, you had better keep it yourself, and this is the truth. We need to keep the law before we tell anyone else about it. This is Jesus’s parable in a nutshell: “take the beam out of your own eye, before you tell your brother to remove the speck from his.” But you better believe that once that beam is removed, it is not just our right, but our duty to teach others about the specks they need to remove.
“You who make your boast in the law, do you dishonor God through breaking the law? For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” => This makes the same point as above. Don’t do this, Paul is writing. Get yourself right with God first before you teach the Gentiles about how to behave. Once you get yourself right, then you can teach.
“For circumcision is indeed profitable if you keep the law; but if you are a breaker of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.” => Here’s the same point again, but more direct. If you are breaking the law, what good is circumcision? But if you are a keeper of the law, then your preexisting, physical circumcision is a sign but not requirement of your obedience. It’s not something to boast about. The language is clear, but needs dissection for understanding.
Why isn’t it a requirement: “Therefore, if an uncircumcised man keeps the righteous requirements of the law, will not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision?” And so here is the crux of the argument for anyone who claims that the law is only a tutor and we don’t have to live by its requirements. If we keep the “righteous requirements of the law,” this obedience counts as circumcision of our hearts, and is better than the physical sign of circumcision.
Further: “will not the physically uncircumcised, if he fulfills the law, judge you who, even with your written code and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law?” => This makes it clear. Obedience to the law is paramount. Even an uncircumcised man who keeps the law can judge a circumcised man who doesn’t keep the law. Circumcision is simply an outward sign of the covenant and is not law unto itself. The law itself, from Genesis to Revelation, must be obeyed.
“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.” => And here is Paul’s glorious conclusion of the matter. In the New Covenant, circumcision is a spiritual requirement, and the sign of it is receipt of the Holy Spirit and then obedience to the law of God. By following the law of God, even if we aren’t circumcised physically, we become JEWS! Read Romans 11: We are literally grafted into Israel through our obedience to the law. Our salvation, again, is through faith alone in Christ Yeshua, but once saved, we had better ensure we are slaves to righteousness and learn everything there is to know about the law, for the Saints keep it, according to Jesus.

As we move into Chapter 3, Paul continues in his arguments and builds upon them. Circumcision is profitable, Paul writes, to the Jew who keeps the law, and remember, Paul just said that we become Jews when we have received the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit, as a Jew, whether by flesh or by Spirit, we become the oracles of God in Jesus Christ. This is the glory of Gentiles being grafted into Israel. And still, any unrighteousness in us will be judged by God, and He will demonstrate His righteousness through His wrath. God is “certainly not” “unjust who inflicts wrath,” Paul says. In his subsequent argument, Paul asks the question of the modern Christian: “And why not say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’.” Paul confirms: the condemnation of people who say this “is just.” But don’t get all caught up in righteousness if you don’t say such blasphemy, Paul warns. Again: “there is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable.” And he continues with such condemnation against all.

“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Ah yes, the glorious verse quoted by all who say the law is no more. And yet, to be under the law simply means to be in violation of it. If we instead seek to obey the law and love God with all of our heart, we are not under the law because we are fulfilling it. This distinction is critical to understanding the whole of Scripture. And while “by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight,” and this is entirely true, “for by the law is the knowledge of sin,” read on to understand Paul’s point. In short: the law instructs us about what is righteousness and what is sin. If we didn’t have the law, we would be blind to what constitutes sin, and thus we might die it without any hope. Because we have the knowledge of what constitutes sin, we can avoid it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

In Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul makes the same point:  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” What are those good works that God prepared before hand that we should walk in them? These are the works of the law. We are saved, and praise Yeshua for the salvation He has given us, because we are all dead men and women without it, but then we better prove our faith in our salvation by keeping the law. Said another way: “we are saved for good works.” You had better believe it, because this is Paul’s whole point, and the following verses prove it.

So Paul’s next section in Romans 3 repeats this concept from Ephesians: “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” If you’re not careful, this can easily be misinterpreted. It is Ephesians 2:8-9, without Ephesians 2:10. We are certainly saved by grace through faith in Messiah Yeshua. This is what it means to be “justified.” Praise God Almighty for this! There is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved.

And so yes, without question, “man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” Make no mistake. Salvation comes through no other means than by Yeshua, but here’s the rub: If you reject the law that Jesus taught and fail to keep His commandments, you show that you do not actually love Him and thus do not have faith in Him. By disobeying the law, you reject the salvation/justification that Jesus gave to you as a free gift. Paul makes this clear: “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.” And so, our God, Yeshua, the God of the Jews and the Gentiles who are one body, one Church in Him, justifies the circumcised and uncircumcised by faith so that upon justification, they can receive the Holy Spirit, begin their walk of sanctification, and ultimately receive glorification upon Christ’s return if they prove themselves faithful from the point of their justification until the end. The law is established upon salvation, meaning that we are at that point obligated to learn it, to know it, and to do it. God will not force you to do this, but if you love Yeshua, you will keep the commandments of God.

Note that Chapter 3 ended with Paul’s confirmation that the law is established in our hearts when we first believe (Romans 3:31), that we are then obligated to learn it, to know it and to do it, particularly as evidence of our faith and love of Yeshua. “Do we then make void the law through faith? CERTAINLY NOT! On the contrary, we establish the law.” In Chapters 4 and 5, Paul digs in to a deeper discussion about grace and the gift that we have in Yeshua’s death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. Because Yeshua has become the one-time sacrifice for all time, we are permanently washed clean by His blood, provided we keep our faith in Him and do not go astray.

We see Paul here emphasizing Abraham’s faith in the promise that God gave him, that his son Isaac would have descendants as numerous as the stars in heaven. It was because Abraham believed this promise that he was willing to sacrifice Isaac upon God’s request; he fully trusted God and believed God could raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). It was this belief that was accounted to Abraham as righteousness, but without the act of raising his hand with the intention to obey, the faith would not have been confirmed. This is not what Paul is talking about here, though. Paul is getting into the act of circumcision, which came after Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac—by many years, actually. Paul’s point is that Abraham’s faith, and the proof of it, came well before God called him to circumcise himself and his sons as a sign of the covenant God had made with him. “For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.”

Paul’s point here in all of Chapter 4 is that circumcision is not required for one to be saved, but rather it is a sign of the covenant He made with Abraham, and here is the proof of this: “And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised.” And so, Abraham had been saved by his faith, which had been proven by his actions, but this was all while uncircumcised. Likewise, Paul argues, Gentiles today can be saved without first becoming circumcised. Because Abraham then got circumcised as a sign of his covenant with God, he too is the father of the circumcised, and also gives them a model, therefore, of righteous, salvational faith. Paul is still trying to unite Jews and Gentiles into one Body here. What matters is that people of faith “walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised.” We too are circumcised in the faith, but without hands, by the Holy Spirit, as God carves the sin out of our lives one-by-one through the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Paul continues to make his point that the promise that Isaac would be the “heir of the world”—here representing those with the Mark of God who will be glorified with Christ on the Last Day—occurred before Abraham circumcised himself or his sons. The circumcision thus became simply a sign alone of Abraham’s covenant with God and did not carry any of the weight of his salvation, which came before the circumcision. Salvation thus comes from faith according to grace, and not through works of the law, to ensure that all have access to it, circumcised or not. The law itself will bring about wrath—to those who break it—and thus it cannot save. However, those who are saved already before they know the law will then follow it out of love of God and to ensure that wrath does not fall on them. Yeshua, “who was delivered up because of our offenses,” died for the sins we have committed against the law before we came to know Him. He was “raised because of our justification,” making it possible for us to be clean before God in all ways.

As Paul continues into Chapter 5, he notes that our salvation, or justification, by faith brings us into a state of peace before God through Yeshua HaMashiach, the only source of our grace, which is the salvational power of God, and because of this we can “rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” It is this same grace that grants the Holy Spirit to enter us, and He gives us the power to “glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope.” It is an act of pure love by God that He has given us an opportunity for this salvation and hope by calling us to Him while we were sinning against Him, calling us into repentance and forgiveness. We are “saved from wrath through Him.”  

Sin is known apart from the law given by God to Moses, Paul continues, because the law of God preceded the law given to Moses. It was through the sin of Adam’s disobedience to God that Man fell into a state where disobedience to God was something men did. Adam indeed opened up all Mankind to the idea that disobedience to God was even possible, and through this original sin, the innocence of Man was lost unto experience, and all men fell into disobedience of one sort or another leading to death. God’s law given to Moses then articulated all of the things that God hates, as well as all the things He expects of us, but they could be summarized by the Sh’ma: “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, all of your mind, all of your strength and all of your soul.” To love God is to keep His commandments. Even the best among us falls short in this area, and so Yeshua came to bring grace unto us for salvation, if we accept it from Him and walk in His righteousness. Thanks be to God for His grace through Yeshua and the power of His Holy Spirit to lead us in righteousness to eternal life.

2021 Commentary on Romans 6, Romans 7, Romans 8, Romans 9, Romans 10, Romans 11

The beginning of Romans 6 is the conclusion of Romans 5, and it ought to have been read at the end of Romans 5, because it is Paul adding the second half to the two witnesses needed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven from Revelation 14:12. We have to look for these “anchor statements” within Paul’s writing, such as Romans 3:31, because they ground us in the truth of the whole Scripture and bring Paul’s writing in alignment with it. Paul writes about many spiritual truths that have come into being since the advent of Messiah Yeshua, and they are all very true spiritual truths that should fill us with joy. But these new truths do not erase the old truths, and Paul makes that abundantly clear at the start of Chapter 6. We can see Paul’s anchor statements throughout Romans, and throughout all of his writing, and in chapters 6-8, there will be a few of them.

And so Paul launches into Chapter 6 with this atomic bomb for those who believe in a grace-only Christian walk. He utterly obliterates that viewpoint: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” So we can see from reading chapters 4 and 5, we are saved—“justified” is a synonym—by grace through faith in Yeshua. It is a free gift, so no one can boast about their works. Why would we boast in our works when we can boast in Christ? For we all fall short; every single one of us. But Paul says here, “what shall we say then?” Is it then OK to sin? Can we violate the commandments of God so that “grace may abound.” In other words, have the commandments been done away with now so we can totally disregard them. His answer: “Certainly not!” His rhetoric is beautiful: “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” To live in Christ is to obey God’s commandments. This is the summary for chapters 6-8.

What follows is another potentially confusing attempt by Paul to summarize the Christian walk, followed by yet another anchor statement. Paul first notes the importance of adult immersion baptism done by the free will of the new believer: When you choose to be baptized, your sins are buried with Christ in the tomb. I encourage you to get baptized again if you haven’t made this choice. And then, as Christ also was raised from the dead by the glory of God, we should come out of the baptismal pool with “the newness of life,” meaning a desire to obey God and all of His commandments out of love for our savior. It is also newness in that we no longer carry any of our old sins—they have been buried. We are clean, spiritually speaking. Our “old man” was crucified with him, meaning the old man that was ignorant of the commandments and/or in violation of them, and thus “the body of sin has been done away with,” meaning the whole account of our sin from birth to baptism is now gone. Here’s a key: “that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” When we are baptized anew in Christ, the desire of our heart ought to be to sin no more.

“For he who has died has been freed from sin.” And so, upon baptism, our sins are removed from us completely, but not just our former sins, but also our desire to sin. We must also then adopt this belief upon emerging from the waters: “we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.” He repeats himself with image after image, metaphor after metaphor, saying that as a new creation in Jesus Christ, we ought to have a desire to walk according to His commandments and live without sin. Death, or sin, no longer has dominion over us, because planted in us has been a desire to live righteously in Christ. “The death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.” Living to God is to live in obedience. This is for us: “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Indeed: live without sin; “do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts… present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

He says this a different say: “sin shall not have dominion over you,” when before it was “death shall have no dominion over you.” “You are no under law but under grace.” Paul means that since sin has been forgiven, you are no longer under the penalty of the law; rather, you have been forgiven of those sins and thus you are under grace. He doesn’t say you no longer have to obey the law, but he does say that you have the chance to walk according to the law in the light of grace. His anchor statement comes next and makes this clear: “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? CERTAINLY NOT! Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” Sin is violation of the law, while obedience, clearly, refers to obedience to the law, which is the very definition of righteousness. We are saved by grace to do good works, and those works are evidence of our salvation. They are the fruit Jesus looks for.

“God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin … having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Our hearts, now aligned with Yeshua, seek God and all His righteousness in His Kingdom, and then all those other things we need are added to us. Obeying the commandments is what it means to be “slaves of righteousness for holiness.” Before we knew Christ, when we were sinners or “slaves to sin,” we were “free in regard to righteousness.” Paul asks, “what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?” The answer to this rhetoric is “none.” “For the end of those things is death.” But now that we are “set free from sin, and having become slaves of God,” we now have “fruit to holiness and the end, everlasting life.” The fruit to holiness is obedience to the law of God, which is precisely how a Holy Spirit imbued person will live. The Holy Spirit helps us do this. But make no mistake, Paul clarifies: “the wages of sin is death.” We cannot continue to live in sin, we have to repent and sin no more. “The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” and so because of this gift, let us live our lives to Him and for Him!

So, as Paul continues in Chapter 7, we read that “the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives,” meaning that the law condemns to death anyone who has failed it once. But as Christ took on the punishment for violating the law on the cross, we are no longer subject to death for one violation of the law. We have been released from that sentence—that curse. Now, we are married to the resurrected Christ, who has forgiven us from sin, so that we can “bear fruit to God,” or live out our lives in obedience to God without the curse from one violation. “The sinful passions which were aroused by the law” were simply our inability to obey the law fully. Having known what God expects, without the Holy Spirit of Christ dwelling within us, it is impossible for us to keep the law perfectly. Thus, the work of our flesh toward sin bore fruit in us to death. So when we read Paul write that we have now been “delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by,” Paul means that we have been delivered from the punishment of the law and that our former sins have been forgiven.

Moving on, he notes that now having been delivered from the law’s curse, “we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.” Yeshua said the same thing in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” Thus, the letter of the law may lead a man to believe he must castigate his brothers for picking wheat grains to snack on while walking through a field on the Sabbath (Matthew 12), when the spirit of the law says we ought to devote the day to worship of the Lord and fellowship with His people. While Jesus would certainly not expect the disciples to harvest the whole field on the Sabbath, for such work is forbidden, to pick one grain as a snack, or one or two blueberries as we enjoy the sunshine on a Sabbath in the Northeast in June, is not violating the spirit of the law. While one who does not have the Spirit may misinterpret the letter and thus look to “lay up heavy burdens” on their brothers using the letter, one who does have the Spirit understands the law the way God intended.

To make sure we understand Paul is not saying the letter itself is done away with, just its spiritless interpretation, we see Paul enter with another anchor statement: “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law said, ‘You shall not covet.’” Paul’s point is that sin is known because the law explains what it means to sin. The law itself is not sin; rather “the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.” How could anyone miss this point? The law is fully upheld! Not one jot or tittle of it has been done away with. (Matthew 5). We are fully expected to obey it, also. Yet, Paul has made clear the law is not helpful for our salvation, in fact, the law condemns us to death. Christ’s grace through His death and resurrection is what saves us as a free gift from our transgressions. He saves us to a life without sin, one in which we fully follow the law, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

As Paul reasons through this truth, he notes that as a child, before he knew the commandments, he didn’t know what sin was. Once he learned the commandments, he did know what sin was, and because he had committed sin, his soul died, which is the punishment for violating the law. Therefore, “the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and it killed me.” Calling the law holy, just and good, Paul adds another anchor statement: “Has then what is good become death to me? CERTAINLY NOT! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become sinful.” Again, the commandments identify sin, and sin leads to death. The commandment is good in that it identifies what is sin, and thus, it also identifies the opposite of sin, which is righteousness. When we obey the commandments, with the power of the Holy Spirit, we live in righteousness.

Next, Paul relates back to Jesus’s John 6:63 statement again: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” So again, we are asked to obey the spirit of the law, rather than the letter as interpreted by Man. When we live in the flesh, rather than in the Spirit, we do what we hate. The fleshly understanding of Man leads to sin. Nothing good dwells in our flesh. Without the Holy Spirit dwelling with in us, “the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” In the flesh, “the sin that dwells in me” is what leads me to do evil rather than good. Paul then uses the word “law” to refer to human nature, “that evil is present with me,” even though he wills to do good. He actually delights “in the law of God according to the inward man,” this is the man who wants to know God, the one who ultimately accepts Christ as the propitiation for sin. It is only through Jesus that we can be delivered “from this body of death,” the fleshly Man that does not have the Spirit of God. This is what Paul means by, “with the flesh, the law is sin.” When we have the Holy Spirit, we walk with righteousness: “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God.”

So those who have the Holy Spirit of God because they are “in Christ Jesus” are no longer under any “condemnation.” The word “condemnation” expresses precisely what “under the law” means. It means that you are living according to the flesh rather than according to the spirit, and thus in violation of the commandments. If you are truly in the Spirit, guided by the Spirit to keep the commandments according to the Spirit, then you aren’t “under the law” or “condemned” by the law, because you are living according to it. When we have the Spirit of God, we “do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” So when Paul says, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death,” he’s saying the same thing. In the saved man or woman, one is no longer obedient to the flesh, who abides in his or her own lusts and desires and follows after the way of the World, seeking to glorify him or herself. Instead, one is living according to the Spirit of Yeshua, which dwells in his or her heart, which leads them toward knowledge of the law, conviction and then repentance, which results in a godly walk in obedience to the law.

When God sent us Yeshua in the flesh to literally embody the whole Tanakh, since it was by His mouth that it was given to Man, His very life—his words and deeds—became a living example of what it means to be obedient to the law. He was the “Word became flesh” (John 1:14). When Yeshua said, “follow me” (Matthew 4:19) and He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34), He is advising us of this very thing: The life Yeshua lived perfectly according to the law, so we must also do. To confirm this, He says, “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). This is what Paul means when he writes “what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” We literally need to follow Him and do as He did, every step of the way.

Paul confirms our need to walk in the Spirit according to the law of God again by stating, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.” The flesh desires its own way, it looks to make life more convenient and pleasant at the expense of God’s law. It disregards the commandments, and makes up its own rules to follow, assuming that God will bless this act of defiance. He will not! Paul confirms: “to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” To be in the flesh means to disregard God’s commandments and to walk according to the intents and interests of own’s own heart. God wants men and women to follow after His heart, to do the works He has commanded, “which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). “If you live according to the flesh you will die,” Paul writes.

Paul, writing to Roman believers, says, “you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,” qualifying this statement with “if the Spirit of God dwells in you. … the Spirit is life because of righteousness.“ We know that God’s commandments are not hard, in fact they are a very light burden, because following them makes our life better, more filled with joy, and unites us with the Father through Yeshua. Writing with much more clarity, John makes the same point in 1 John 5:1-5: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Paul confirms: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” The Spirit will lead you to follow God’s law.

We received not “the spirit of bondage again to fear.” Bondage is sin, and those who are living according to the flesh in sin, or disobedience to God’s commandments, ought to be afraid, for this leads to death. If you “received the Spirit of adoption,” you can “cry out, ‘Abba, Father,” and “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs…” The inheritance of Jacob is our goal, the Promised Land, the Kingdom of God, the Tree of Life. “If indeed we suffer with Him,” enduring the hardships of this life in the wilderness and standing fast according to God’s commandments with faith in Yeshua, “we may also be glorified together” with Yeshua when He comes again on the Last Day. Like Paul, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Paul’s next section describes the human condition since creation and the subsequent fall of Adam, followed by the redemption we have in Christ and the time of perseverance in the wilderness that we are now suffering through.  “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses.” Perseverance is key, perseverance in God’s law and in our faith, despite the World’s attempt to draw us back to itself. The Holy Spirit helps us through our moments of temptation. No temptation is given to us that we can’t handle (1 Corinthians 10:13). If we truly have the Spirit, we will not fall again into sin, but will repent and rise above it. Then we endure.

Next, Paul writes about how we can endure through the temptations of this life: “For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” This is practically speaking what it takes to endure in this World of sin and death. God wills us to endure, and He tests us to make sure that we will keep His commandments even amidst the gravest of threats against our worldly security. He uses these tests for good; namely, to make us better people, more aligned with His will, stronger and able to withstand even greater threats to our lives, families and properties. Why would He let anyone in to His Kingdom who is not able to do this? Don’t be mistaken: we are not to do this with our own power, but with the power of the Holy Spirit who he has given us to “make intercession” and “helps in our weaknesses.”

Don’t let the next section confuse you: We are not chosen by God at the beginning of time to live or to die in some twisted Calvinistic theory. If God has already chosen us to enter Heaven or to be destroyed and there is nothing we can do whatsoever to change our destination, then there is no point to do anything pleasing to Him at all. Calvin might argue that those who are being saved will automatically do God’s will in their lives, but we know from experience that even the most Holy men fall away from perfection and must be redeemed. The concept does not comport with the rest of Scripture. When Paul writes, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren,” he refers to Yeshua Himself, who God begot through Mary to be made flesh, to live as a perfect Man in His image, and then to be the first resurrected among all men and women who would be resurrected on the Last Day through obedience to God’s commandments and their faith in Yeshua. When it says “He foreknew” this “image of His Son,” it is because Yeshua reigned eternally with the Father before He became flesh.

Continuing, He notes that those who follow Christ are “predestined” to have the same fate as Him when He says, “Moreover whom He predestined, those He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” While it is easy to be confused by this language, one only needs the rest of Scripture to know, “Many are called but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14). God wants to save all of His creation for His eternal Kingdom, but not all of humanity will be chosen to enter it. We can be predestined for eternity, but reject it by either rejecting the Son who saves us or the commandments, which by the Spirit we keep and sanctify ourselves in Christ for glorification. To be predestined simply means it is God’s will to save us, but this does not guarantee our salvation, our sanctification and our glorification. The rest of the equation is on us: First, do we accept the free gift being given? Yes, you’re on the right track. No, you’re doomed to die. Second, do prove we have accepted this free gift and show that we love Him by keeping His commandments. If so, He will say, “well done, good and faithful servant, welcome into my rest” (Matthew 25:23). If not, we don’t know Him, and He doesn’t know us. He will say, “depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. I never knew you.” (Mathew 7:21-23)

The final section confirms the glory due to those who love God, keep His commandments and faith in Yeshua: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” This is the truth. The answer is no one, except you. You are the only one who can give up the promises of God, if you lose faith in them or intentionally reject God’s will for you. Consider the Israelites who could not be cursed in the wilderness by Balaam. They were untouchable until they fell into sin, following after the Ba’als and committing sexual immorality. When they themselves chose to do this, God condemned them to death. The same is true of us who live in Christ. We are untouchable, destined for Heaven, unless we fall away into the lusts of the flesh and reject the will of God. This is why over and over again so many Fathers of the Faith instruct us to “endure.” We need to endure in our faith and in our obedience to God’s will. If we do this, the answer is “no one” to the rhetoric: “Who can bring a charge against God’s elect?” for “It is God who justifies.”

Not even the great Tribulation at the End of Days, the Beast, or the Antichrist can take those of us who have the seal of God, the Holy Spirit, away from our salvation, Paul shows in His final rhetoric: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Only that we endure in the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Don’t lose hope. Don’t go off track. Endure.

Romans 9, 10 and 11 are one coherent message on one particular point: The New Covenant is here, which is the second age of promise, and those who have faith in Yeshua are saved, whether they are Jew or Gentile. However, just as obedience to the commandments isn’t sufficient to save the Jews (or anyone), so is the salvation through Yeshua not enough for the Gentiles (or anyone) to reach their inheritance, the land of promise, the Kingdom of Heaven, if they fall away into sin and live a life of lawlessness. These chapters make the point that the Saints are obedient to the commandments and have faith in Yeshua, and the Saints are part of One Body in Christ, One Olive Tree, which is the Spiritual Nation of Israel. You have to read all the way through these three chapters to get this message, and any verse taken out of context is done so with great error.

In Genesis 32:28, Yeshua had just wrestled with Jacob, who insisted on a blessing from the Lord. Upon granting this request, Yeshua says: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” This verse is a sheep and goats overview statement from the Lord. Jacob means “heal-catcher,” or supplanter. This is the one who struggles with man, who holds on to the ways of the World, and who tries to make it here without God. This is the worldly man of the flesh, who can expect nothing but death. Israel, on the other hand, means striver with God. This is the man of the Spirit who strives to be with God, to do His will and to have faith in His promise, which is the promise of the Messiah Yeshua. This is the Spiritual man who with the Holy Spirit can strive for perfection in Yeshua. This is the same dichotomy we face today. This is why as Gentiles, we must be grafted into Israel in order to reach the promised land.

Paul, in introducing this section to the Romans, says he longs to reach the people with the truth who come from the fleshly seed of Jacob, so they too can become the children of promise as the spiritual seed of Israel in Christ. As reported of Moses in Exodus 32:31-32—“Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! Yet now, if You will forgive their sin—but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which You have written.”—so too does Paul ask God that he be “accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh.” These are called to be Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God and the promises.” From this chosen people in the flesh, “Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God.”

Paul makes the point I’ve made relative to the name of Jacob and Israel next: “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham,” here widening the field to include the Gentiles born outside the seed of Isaac as well as those who are descendants of Jacob. He notes God’s promise: “In Isaac your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed.” It was through the miraculous birth of Isaac, promised to Abraham through Sarah, that Abraham himself proved his faith—by offering to sacrifice Isaac upon God’s request. And so this prophetic template denotes that those who believe in the Messiah Yeshua will also be accounted children of promise, so long as they also prove that through their words and deeds.

Identifying the next prophetic template, Paul notes that God purposed Jacob to represent the coming age of promise, while Esau, who gave his inheritance up for a bowl of soup, God had purposed to represent the current age of the world, which is perishing. So when God says, “the older shall serve the younger” and “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have loved less,” we note that God has been setting up His coming Kingdom age since the beginning, and He is calling us all into it. He grants it to those who have faith in Him and then through the bounty of their hearts, they show this faith in their words and deeds. Esau did this by treating his eternity frivolously, caring more about the needs of this life, and Jacob did this by wrestling with God until he prevailed, not letting God get away. This is a man who strives with everything he has to seek first the Kingdom of God, and it is our model that Yeshua and now Paul is teaching us about. God will have mercy on whomever He will have mercy, and compassion on whomever he wills. Jacob’s striving heart is our example.

Moving on to another analogy with Pharaoh, Paul notes that the Egyptian king might have been “prepared for destruction,” in contrast to those who were “prepared beforehand for glory.” By no means does Paul imply here the Calvinistic ideas of predestination, which is anathema to the rest of Scripture. Those who are “prepared beforehand for destruction” are those who have chosen the path of destruction by rebelling against God’s laws and moving in disbelief against the faith He is calling us to in Christ, while on the contrary, those “prepared beforehand for glory” have given their heart fully to the Lord, believed in the promise of salvation through Yeshua and acted on it, and so with the Holy Spirit God prepares these souls for their glory in His Kingdom.

In Exodus 5 we see evidence that Pharaoh put Himself in a position to be rejected by God, acting on his own free will: When Moses first introduced God to Pharoah, Pharaoh rejected God because he did not “know” God (verses 1-3). When Moses presses him on this, saying, OK, maybe not for you, but for us, perhaps hoping to lead him toward repentance, Pharaoh doubled down by oppressing Israel because of their faith and because they intended to keep God’s commandments. He literally punished Israel with more “work” when Israel intended to celebrate a Feast and do no work, per the commandment (verses 4-9). Pharaoh was following the pattern of Psalm 1. Rather than repent and come to know the Lord, he rejected the Word of God and then sat in the “seat of scoffers” by punishing those who adhered to God’s Word, hardening his own heart and making Himself an enemy of God. Later on, when Moses plead with Pharoah to allow him to take the people out to celebrate the feast, Pharoah doubled down another time of his own accord, saying, “Idle, you are idle. Therefore go now and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks” (verse 17-18). God didn’t do this to Pharaoh, Pharaoh did this to Himself. Because Pharoah rejected the Word of God, which we know to be spoken from the mouth of Yeshua, God’s salvation, and then doubled down to reject and punish the people obeying God’s Word, God rejected Pharoah and then used Him as part of His plan while also setting him up for destruction. God does not say until Exodus 7:3 that He will “harden Pharoah’s heart.” Before this, Pharoah had a chance to repent and be saved. God did the same thing to King Saul when Saul rejected the commandments of God and sought to fashion obedience after the dictates of his own heart (1 Samuel 15). God, having attempted to bring His Word to Pharaoh and to Saul, gave up after their consistent disobedience and obstinance and turned against them for good. This principle is laid out in Hebrews 10:26-27: “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.” This is what happened to Pharoah, King Saul, as well as some of the Jews who had rejected and crucified their own Messiah. These ones have no hope of salvation, no sacrifice for these sins, because they have blasphemed against the Holy Spirit and called evil good, and good evil.

Paul mourns those who have so heartedly rejected God, but also shows how God then uses these people to test the other people who He has called. He will “have mercy on whom He wills.” Jeremiah  tells us who God wills to have mercy on: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). So the ones God forgives are those who are seeking Him, or like Israel, striving after Him. These are the ones predestined to glory, so long as they continue to walk in this way. Paul says, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” The rhetorical question highlights the reason others are predestined for destruction. It’s not because God has chosen to destroy them before they ever acted, it’s because these have resisted God’s will in their lives, they have shown a lack of faith and a lack of obedience. Rather than ask God, like clay asking a potter, “Why have you made me like this?” We ought to ask, how might I please you, Oh God?

Quoting Hosea next, Paul notes that some among the seed of Jacob will be slated for destruction, while some who are of the seed of Israel, not by blood but by faith, will be slated for glory. And then he quotes Isaiah, only a “remnant will be saved” among the seed of Jacob; namely, those who have faith in the Messiah Yeshua and keep His commandments. We see this in the statement, “Unless the Lord of the Sabbath had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom.” It is only in the promise of Messiah Yeshua that there is any hope for redemption. Those of Jacob who did not make it “stumbled at that stumbling stone,” namely, the Messiah who came as God in the flesh, who died on the cross like a condemned criminal. How could one who endured such a curse be the son of promise? But “whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”

As Paul’s letter continues in the artificial Chapter 10, he repeats that his “heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved,” and the rest of the section in chapter 10 and 11 explains how this will all work out for some of them. “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.” What! I thought Israel was given the knowledge of God in Scripture. What could he mean? “They are ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” During His ministry, Yeshua covered this fact in great detail, but particularly in Mark 7: God made no law about eating bread with unwashed hands, but the Pharisees were going after Jesus’s disciples for not abiding by this Rabbinical tradition. See verses 7-8: “And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men—the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.”

And so, to “establish [your] own righteousness” means to add on to God’s laws with your own rules or regulations that do not come from God or to take away the laws of God and believe that you will be saved without obedience. To rely on your own righteousness is literally the same thing as rejecting God’s law. Being “ignorant of God’s righteousness” means to be ignorant of God’s law, His commandments, His statutes, His feasts, His Sabbath and everything and anything God has commanded us to do, if we love Him. To obey God’s commandments is to live with God’s righteousness. Paul makes this clear in the next verse: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” Yeshua lived the law flawlessly, and so those who follow after Him in faith and do what He did will have a complete and holistic understanding of God’s righteousness and knowledge of how to live in righteousness.

While Moses writes of righteousness which is of the law, “The man who does those things shall live by them,” it is only when we have faith in Yeshua and the Word dwells in our hearts that we can truly say, “The Word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.” This is a somewhat confusing way of saying that it’s not the letter of the law that we live by, meaning obedience to what it says in black and white as if it is meant to be taken literally at all times, but rather, it is the spirit of the law that we ought to follow, and when we have the heart of Yeshua, and “love one another” (for the Torah is a book of love), we will obey God’s law in the way He intended. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is the same law as “you shall reap what you sow” and “do unto others what you would have them to unto you.” When the Spirit of God is in us, we ought to be able to see this. God is the arbtrar of our eternal disposition; it’s not our role to strike back at our brother when he injures us, but rather our role to forgive, for this is surely what we would want for ourselves. God will sort everything out against those who don’t seek Him with their whole hearts with a heart full of repentance.

And so, it is faith in Yeshua and receipt of the Holy Spirit that leads us to having a heart to understand God’s will. It doesn’t matter what family we were born into, we all have an equal opportunity to achieve this salvation, which leads us on the path of life: “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” When we give Yeshua our whole heart, we are saved by our faith, and our heart believes unto righteousness, which is obedience to God’s will.

And so, Paul uses this basic pattern of the whole faith to call on all of us to do our part: to preach the Gospel to the Jews so that they have the opportunity for salvation, but not a false Gospel that abandons the law—no Jew would ever follow such a false Messiah, and neither should we. Jesus came to uphold the whole law and teach us how to follow it properly. The Jews will come to faith when we can show Him how Yeshua fulfills all of the prophesies and teaches the righteousness of God, giving Himself up to redeem us from our sin. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God;” the Word of God, that is, from Genesis to Revelation. “How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent?” We have been sent: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” (Matthew 28:19). “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.” (Matthew 9:27).

The next time you see a Jew, call upon him or her to repentance as you are guided by the Holy Spirit. Paul notes Moses’s writing: “I will provoke you to jealousy by those who are not a nation, I will move you to anger by a foolish nation.” Yes, the Gentiles have been now grafted into Israel and counted among God’s chosen people to bring the Jews to jealousy, to call upon them for repentance, a point Paul makes more thoroughly in Chapter 11. In Isaiah’s writing, Paul notes how God brought in everyone who was not looking for Him, much like Jesus’s parable of the wedding, where the invited guests were not interested in coming, but the stragglers along the streets were invited and treated to the celebration. God has long-suffered through their obstinate heart: “all day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and contrary people.” And yet, as we go into Chapter 11, we see another anchor statement: “I say then, has God cast away His people? Certainly not!” Paul himself is a Jew who has become obedient to Christ, and he calls on us—even today—to continue to call in God’s people to salvation.

Paul asserts: “God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew.” He identifies with Elijah who reasoned that he was the only believer left in Israel, saying “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” And yet, Paul, having the advantage of the prophesy’s fulfillment carries with him the wisdom of God, “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Ba’al.” It’s in the same Spirit that Paul recognizes a remnant of the fleshly seed of Jacob will also be saved in the way of Israel, who clung onto God with all of His strength. He recalls the same “stumbling block” metaphor from earlier, but gives Israel hope with it: “have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles.” As Gentile believers, we ought to be mindful that God wants the people to return to Him whom He used to announce Himself to the World. The Jews were a light to the Gentiles, and now we ought to be a light unto the Jews.

And so, Paul turns to the Gentiles of Rome, calling them into action to purposefully provoke the Jews to this jealousy. What would do this other than the Gentiles learning obedience to God’s law and following after the Messiah the People of God have been waiting for ever since Adam was banished from the Garden of Eden? “If their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” This was all part of God’s plan: The firstfruit, who is Yeshua, is holy, and thus the “lump,” meaning the rest of the fruit, “is also holy.” And so Paul concludes his writing on the reconstitution of Israel, as well as our place as Gentiles within Israel, with one of the best metaphors in all of Scripture:

“If the root is holy,” again, Yeshua, “so [too] are the branches” that are sustained by that root. “And if some of the branches [fleshly Israel] were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree [Gentiles], were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root [God, Yeshua] and fatness of the olive tree [Holy Spirit], do not boast against the branches.” So far, we see that many Jews were broken off from among God’s Holy Nation through their unbelief in Yeshua, and Gentiles were grafted into the tree because of their belief in Yeshua. Here comes some warning to the Gentiles: “If you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you.” Yeshua is the one who unites everyone who calls on His name into One Body, whether made up of Jews or Greeks. And next comes the concept that once we are saved, we can lose our salvation:

“You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off that I might be grafted in.’ Well said. Because of unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but fear.” Pause here. Why do we need to fear? If we have faith, aren’t we predestined for God’s glory? The answer comes next, and in short, the answer is, “it depends.” “If God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but to you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.” Don’t be mistaken: If you obey God because your heart is full of the love that comes from faith in Yeshua and receipt of the Holy Spirit, and you therefore keep the spirit of the law according to the commandments, you will inherit the Kingdom of God. If you disobey God or trump up new commandments of men that are not based on God’s Word or turn away from the goodness of God, thinking that His Word was for a different time, you aren’t going to make it.

And last is the second exhortation and the heart of Paul: “They also, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted back in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?” The formula for God’s glory is this: keep the commandments of God and faith in Yeshua. The Jews who accept Yeshua as their Messiah, who say, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” these will be saved and brought into the inheritance of God. The Gentiles who hold on to their faith in the Messiah Yeshua and learn the laws given to Moses every Sabbath and follow them with all of their heart will remain attached to the root that sustains them and enter into the inheritance of God. Paul wants everyone he can possibly reach to enter into God’s rest.

Paul does not desire that you are “wise in your own opinion,” which is another way to say what he said earlier, those who attempt to “establish their own righteousness” have missed the mark. We all ought to follow after God’s righteousness. And yet, we have all fallen into disobedience. The Gentiles have been called from disobedience into righteousness through faith, to be taught the righteousness of God. The Jews, having lived with the Holy law as a gift to train them up, fell into disobedience by denying their Messiah. “For God has committed them all to disobedience that He might have mercy on all.” “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God … For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be the glory forever.” God’s mercy abounds and His glory is available to all of us, if only we submit to His will and depend on His grace. If we love God, we will keep His commandments. Love is faith, keeping the commandments is demonstrating that faith. Let us all endure in this faith demonstrated by works until He comes again.

2021 Commentary on Romans 12, Romans 13, Romans 14, Romans 15, Romans 16

Starting out Chapter 12, Paul writes, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God…,” which links the previous message about Gentiles being grafted in to the One Olive Tree of Spiritual Israel from Romans 9-11 to today’s message that tackles a few issues the early Church was dealing with. Paul’s point is this: now that you know the truth that both Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, saved by faith to do good works of the law, subject to the same condemnation if they fall back into sin, “present your” fleshly, Earthen vessel, your “bodies” as “a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Service to each other as Christians, to put others first before yourself, to follow Yeshua’s example and love one another, and to also subject your body to the law of God, which sanctifies it as “holy and acceptable to God.” He confirms: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” We must “take every thought captive,” focusing our mind and our actions on God’s will always.

Paul warns us not to become caught up in any false hope of being greater than any other true believer who has received God’s grace. The Sons of Thunder were rebuked by Yeshua for wanting to sit on His left and right in the Kingdom. “Think soberly,” according to the faith God has given you, contributing your part to the Church in all humility, considering equally the value that others bring into the Body. Now that we know Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ, we ought to share our gifts of the Holy Spirit with one another to build each other up. In the style of 1 Corinthians 14, Paul notes “prophesy” “ministry,” “teaching,” “exhortation,” “giving,” “leading with diligence,” and “cheerful mercy” are all gifts members bring into the Congregation which edify other believers.

When we do love, which both Yeshua and Paul highlight as the quintessential summary commandment, “let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.” These ideas are related. The commandments identify what is good and evil, and how to love without hypocrisy. If we imagine love to be a “live and let live philosophy,” Paul implies that both the one living in sin and the one who lets the other live as his heart dictates will end up in Hell. Love is defined by the commandments, but the commandments are also defined by love. You can’t interpret them properly without love, and you can’t interpret love properly without the commandments. They rely on each other. So when we are “kindly affectionate to one another, with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfast in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality,” we truly put love into practice as it is aligned with God’s will.

Paul’s practical list that follows aligns perfectly with the teachings of Yeshua: “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse,” and pray for them, Yeshua adds in Luke 6:28. “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.” Paul is instructing us to show empathy and be there for our Christian brethren. “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.” We ought to absorb evil, thoughtless, insensitive, or selfish behavior and forgive the one bringing this into our lives, and deflect this misguided behavior by highlighting everything that is good. “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” But more important than this, we must leave vengeance to the Lord. As He says in Deuteronomy 32:35: “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And so, rather than return evil for evil, we ought to serve our enemies with food and drink and overcome evil with good. Perhaps your enemy will observe your behavior and change his or her heart?

Stuck in the middle of this list, Paul writes: “Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.” Here He quotes from Proverbs 3:7, which continues with “fear the Lord and turn away from evil.” To be wise in your own opinion is to believe your own way is better than God’s way, to think following after your own heart is doing God’s will, when in fact it is often falling into sin and disobedience, which leads to death. Many Christians misinterpret this section, saying that we should keep our interpretations to ourselves, to keep our words brief, and to stay quiet when someone else is misinterpreting the Word. This is a false interpretation. We are instructed repeatedly to study the Word of God, to know it, and to instruct each other in it, to exhort one another, to teach each other, to prophesy. To do this is to be a man or woman after God’s own heart. This is how we must build up each other in love, for “iron sharpens iron.” To share the non-contradictory Word of God is God’s will for us. Look at how Aquila and Priscilla took Apollo aside in Acts 18 and “explained to him the way of God more accurately.” Aquila and Priscilla were not acting “wise in their own opinion,” rather, they were sharing the accurate interpretation for the Word of God out of love with a believer who hadn’t yet reached a full understanding. For them to stay quiet and allow Apollo to speak incorrectly would be the greater sin. Humility is associated with God; we are to fear God and not Man, for what can man do to us? Humility means to obey God’s commandments no matter what the cost, all the while loving each other and our enemies who try to thwart us in this effort; treating anyone we encounter as we would want to be treated. Perhaps this leads them to repentance?

Paul shifts gears in Romans 13, launching into another controversial topic hotly debated heavily today—especially today. He had just finished writing about loving the enemy and leaving vengeance to God, and now he tells us to “be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.” Paul is saying that these authorities may indeed be our enemies, particularly when we are living out our faith, but we are still subject to them and their authority. Look back at 1 Samuel 8 and notice that God only appoints governments (kings) to rule over us when we reject Him and His authority over us. Consider Assyria conquering Israel due to the nation’s consistent disobedience.

Consider Babylon sacking Jerusalem when the kings repeatedly shunned God. Consider Antiochus IV Epiphanies crushing Jerusalem until righteous men stood up to him. And then Rome completely demolished the Temple and leveled Jerusalem not long after Jerusalem asked the nation to put Yeshua to death. God used all of these governments, which were evil to the core, to judge Israel for her sin, which is what God does. Yet, God also destroyed each one of those conquering empires. No nation shall rise against Israel and stand. Paul isn’t contradicting this; he’s simply noting that when God allows oppression upon us, it is judgment that we deserve (perhaps we didn’t speak up enough about the evils of abortion or LGBTQ?. Repentance will get us out of this, but in the meantime, we are subject to whatever authority is in charge.

“Whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.” When a governing authority becomes oppressive over us, resisting it will bring judgment on our flesh. This is matter of fact. But you can’t read this and not consider Daniel who prayed anyway despite a government decree to refrain, who was then thrown to the lions; or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who refused to bend the knee to the king and were thrown into the fiery furnace, only to be saved by a Christophony in the fire. Moses challenged Pharaoh, and only the blood of the lamb saved Israel from Pharaoh’s bondage, but Moses and the Israelites were subject to Pharaoh’s bondage until that day. Consider Peter, who said, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” He was thrown in prison for this, but then said the next day, “we must obey God and not Man.” Did Yeshua stop prophesizing about His Kingdom coming or His identity as the Messiah? No! He doubled down and preached to all man, accepting the death of the cross.

And so, the judgment does come on those who resist, but is it right to resist? The next verse gives us our answer: “For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” And so, when government is aligned with the Word of God, with His commandments, and with “rewarding good and punishing evil,” we had better follow the law or God’s judgment will be doled out at the hands of government. Suppose with me, however, that government has now turned to reward evil and punish good? Isaiah says “woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” This government will bring destruction upon itself, and we are under no moral obligation to follow it. As Peter says in Acts 5, “we must obey God and not man.” In fact, such a government has abdicated its authority and may be ignored and ultimately replaced.

Ah, but in defying evil government, we must still accept wrath for disobedience to their authority, however evil, and we also ought to consider the ministers who are using evil against us by loving them; in this case, they are our enemy. We ought not put up stumbling blocks in front of them so they cannot see the glory of the faith in Yeshua, but rather, we ought to “count it all joy” so that these ministers might recognize Yeshua in us and turn from their wicked ways. When a government is corrupted like this, the whole nation must repent and ask for all forgiveness from God Himself, for only He can heal our land. (2 Chronicles 7:14). Individually, we may be fine—if we are like Noah, Daniel and Job, we can be saved out of a Beast such as this (Ezekiel 14:14 and Ezekiel 14:20). We must obey God and not Man. As a nation, we must repent, seek God’s face and humble ourselves before Him. He has said He will heal our land if we do this. From the premise that we ought to be subject to authority that is from God, Paul makes it clear we ought to obey government laws that don’t violate God’s commandments by paying taxes, abiding by customs, obeying those in authority positions, and honoring those who are honorable.

In the instance of the Maccabees, we see a righteous rebellion against pure evil. To protect the law of God, the people of God and prevent evil from completely annihilating a godly people, rebellion in self defense comes into play. Was the American Revolution another such time? We have to be careful with this mentality. There absolutely is a time to resist completely godless authority, but only when the Satanic oppression is so systematic that the act of rebellion is self defense. Esther’s story is another instance where the people rebelled against their oppressors, but under the authority of the king. God did this. It wasn’t man deciding to act in violent rebellion without God. God topples kingdoms, He brings nations to repentance, and He establishes nations, governments and kings. His plan is bigger than us and sometimes hard to understand. Prayer, fasting and waiting on God comes first, and our heart ought be to do God’s will in all things. Ultimately, it’s all about love. Our hearts must be motivated by love of God and love of our neighbor, or our heart is not in the right place.

And so Paul returns again to Yeshua’s statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18), which sums up the whole of the law. Citing five commandments directly: “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not bear false witness,” “You shall not covet,” Paul says that “love is the fulfillment of the law” because “love does no harm to a neighbor.” This is the truth. How can you truly love your neighbor or your own spouse if you sleep with your neighbor’s spouse? How can you love your neighbor if you envy him for his house, or his car? Does such hatred harboring in your heart do anyone any good? Will your relationship lead either of you to Heaven? And yet, as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:16, “untaught and unstable people twist” Paul’s writings “to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” We must know the commandments say “you shall not murder,” and not rest assured that we haven’t intentionally ended the life of another soul. Yeshua, who interpreted this commandment for us in Matthew 5:21-26, says that even being angry with our brother could lead to judgment. It’s a matter of the heart. And so we know love by knowing the law, and we know the law by applying the love of Yeshua to it. Obedience is all a matter of the heart, and not blind adherence to the words. We must know the words before we can apply love to them and satisfy the commandments of God. Paul concludes the section with a clear exhortation to do just that: “Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.” Knowledge and love working together make for a perfect union that leads to life.

From matters of governance, Paul moves on to matters of religion in Romans 14. When “one believes he may eat all things,” Paul is not talking about swine or pork or stones or bricks. None of those things are food, according to Leviticus 11:1-47, Deuteronomy 14:3-21, Deuteronomy 12:23-25 and Genesis 18:6-8. We know this because he contrasts “all things” with “he who is weak” and “eats only vegetables.” This was the controversy of Paul’s day. The dispute was between those who eat clean meats and vegetables verses those who eat only vegetables. Once again, Paul is making it clear that we ought to not quibble over the matters that are not covered by the commandments, the laws of men, rather than the laws of God. “To his own master he stands or falls,” and so we see here that Paul puts the matter between the individual and God—let God be the judge. And He will judge, based on those who are obedient to His commandments and have faith in Yeshua and those who are missing one or both of those elements.

Likewise, Paul calls to account those who are disputing about fasting on Mondays and Wednesdays and those who want to fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In a chapter all about food, we can see that “one person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.” He’s talking about fasting days. “He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord, and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord” and “he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat.” Both give thanks in their feasting or their fasting. “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ” and “every knee shall bow” to Yeshua and “every tongue shall confess to God. So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.”

The next verse notes there is nothing “common” of itself, but to him who considers anything “common,” to him it is “common.” This is the Greek word κοινος (koinos), which also means profane, unrefined, unwashed, and the like; it is the opposite of Holy. The NKJV uses the word “unclean” here, but I don’t believe this is the precise translation in verse 14. If anything, “Rabinnically unclean” is the right translation. Paul does not contradict God’s law. For him to do so would make him a heretic. We have to read this verse in context of the chapter as a whole, relative to eating clean meats vs. vegetables or fasting on one day vs. fasting on another. He may also be aligning with Yeshua’s teaching in Mark 7, for instance, which was to call out those Pharisees complaining about disciples eating bread with unwashed hands. It is not against God’s law to eat clean food with unwashed hands, but it certainly is against the Talmudic law. So Paul here is teaching the Gospel, explaining that something does not become unclean because men say that it is unclean. Only God’s law defines clean vs. unclean.

Digging further in to the word κοινός (koinos) Strong’s Gk. 2839, the definitions give us far more clarification that a Mark 7 interpretation of Romans 14:14 is apt. Paul is not saying it is OK to eat unclean food; again, this would be a contradiction of the Scripture and thus cannot be the right interpretation. From the HELPS Word-studies, we see the word refers to what is defiled (stripped of specialness) because it is treated as ordinary, a spiritual desecration, such as when a person treats what is sacred as ordinary. We see both happening in Romans 14, where vegetarian men are calling clean meat unclean, which is similar to calling clean meat unclean because it was defiled by idols, or as in Mark 7, saying clean bread eaten with unwashed hands is now somehow unclean. This verse is simply about Rabbinical traditions that make what God would call clean to be something that is not. A third definition, as in Jude 1:3 where the gift of salvation is held in common by all true believers, reveals a double entendre in Paul’s sentence. He’s calling on believers to treat each other as clean in Yeshua, regardless of what their background is or where they are in the faith. In love, we need to encourage each other along, and the Holy Spirit will do the rest.

More importantly, Paul notes that even the one keeping to Rabbinical food laws ought to be loved for his or her desire to serve God in that way. “Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. … do not let your good be spoken of as evil; for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” God’s righteousness is obedience to God’s law, but His peace and joy come from faith in Yeshua for salvation and the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome all the things of the flesh. “Therefore, let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food.” Paul continues noting that if you reject the Rabbinical food law additions (or, if you insist, you even reject the Levitical food laws that come from God), keep it to yourself: “Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.” Don’t let this be lost on you. You could be condemning yourself by approving of things that are unlawful. “It is good neither to eat meat nor drink wine nor do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended or is made weak.” “For whatever is not from faith is sin,” Paul concludes. In time, perhaps the Word of God will convict you in the Holy Spirit and you too will begin to keep God’s law more accurately, but in the meantime, don’t allow your lack of understanding to lead those astray who are keeping God’s law according to His will.

Paul’s point in all of this continues at the beginning of chapter 15: “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.” He says those “who are strong ought to bear with the scruples/principles of the weak, and not to please” themselves. So those who enjoy clean meats ought to eat only vegetables around those believers who are offended by meat. Those who fast on certain days of the week ought not discuss the discrepancy with those who fast on other days. The core principle is to be “like minded” in Christ, by following the Scripture that was “written for our learning” so we can develop patience and be comforted in the Word of God, which ought to give us hope. Yeshua came as “a servant to the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy.” Paul finishes this section of the letter with multiple scriptural references alluding to the grafting in of Gentiles into Israel. Both Jews and Gentiles have the same hope, joy, and peace in Yeshua HaMashiach.

As Paul concludes his letter toward the end of Romans 15 and into Romans 16, he gives us a clue that helps us understand the whole letter: “Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.” This is critical. The Christians to whom he’s writing are good, meaning the obey Torah (the Law of God), they have knowledge (of Torah and the Prophets), and they are both good and knowledgable enough to “admonish” one another. That’s νουθετέω noutheteó, Strong’s Gk. 3560, meaning they exert positive pressure on others’ logic (reasoning), urging them to choose to repent and turn toward God’s law. That also means they don’t have a speck in their eye, so in fact, they can teach others how to remove the beam from their eyes and they have authority to counsel newer Christians on how to grow in the faith. Paul’s advice in his letter is the other half of the meaning of Yeshua’s comment in Matthew 7:3. Only once a Christian is walking righteously can he or she counsel another. These Christians in Rome are either Messianic Jews or Hellenized Jews who have accepted Yeshua and they know the faith well, like Pricilla and Aquila.

Paul is writing to a group that already possesses wisdom and knowledge of Scripture; they are already doing the works of God’s law, so Paul is not writing to them about this, and they possess faith in Yeshua. Thus, the points he has emphasized are ones that needed to be addressed: “I have written more boldly to you on some points, as reminding you.” He’s reminding them about a few areas where they’ve had questions or where they have been weak. He’s also writing to them about how to accept new Gentile believers into the faith and then lead them to sanctification through upbuilding of knowledge and understanding through the Scriptures and sanctification with the power of the Holy Spirit. This is Paul’s mission from Yeshua, and by extension, the mission he is giving to other elders who are his understudies. He has reason to glory in Christ Jesus in the things which pertain to God, he writes, because he has witnessed Gentiles become obedient to God—“in many signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God,” and is thus not taking credit for their change. Again, Paul was delayed in coming to these Romans because his mission had been to preach the Gospel “to whom He was not announced … and those who have not heard,” so they can “see” and “understand.” The Romans were already strong in the faith. Yet, he still intends to visit them.

Paul, now on his way to Jerusalem first, is bringing “a contribution for the poor among the saints who are in Jerusalem” from those in “Macedonia and Achaia.” The Gentiles have taken part with the Messianic Jews “in their spiritual things,” and thus it is their “duty,” Paul writes, “to minister to” the saints in Jerusalem “in material things.” He then begs these Roman believers to pray for his trip to Jerusalem so that it is fruitful and not dangerous. As he moves into Chapter 16, he references a long list of people whom it appears he is sending with his letter to Rome, or perhaps they are the recipients of it. Regardless, these are both men and women whom he highly regards, including Aquila and Pricilla. Implied is that these folks will read the letter Paul is writing to the church at Rome, and then help to lead the growth of the church there. “The churches of Christ greet you,” Paul writes, speaking as the leader and founder of so many of them.

He also warns the church to look out for wolves in sheep’s clothing, “those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them.” These serve their flesh rather than the Lord Jesus Christ, meaning that they preach for their own financial benefit rather than to serve the Lord. We ought to learn from this and be equally mindful of those who profit off of their preaching. They use flattery and smooth words to deceive, and deprive those who want to learn the Truth of their wallets.

These Roman leaders are known for their “obedience,” Paul writes. What’s implied: obedience to the law of God. He warns them to also be wise in what is good, meaning a full comprehension of it, and simple concerning evil, meaning a quick and definitive rejection of it. Their endurance will result in reward: “the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.” Recall that to God a day is like 1000 years, and 1000 years like a day. Shortly is relative. He finishes the letter with another list of names, including Timothy, Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, as well as Tertius, who write this letter, which was clearly dictated by Paul to him. Perhaps these are the men who are bringing the letter from Paul in Greece to the church in Rome? As a final exhortation, Paul sends “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” by which we are saved, but then adds this: “To Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandments of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever.” His writing is clear: we ought to have the full counsel of God from Genesis to Revelation, an understanding and obedience to the law of God, but not the law of man, and a faith in Yeshua our King who redeems us and gives us hope for life everlasting.

This “new spirit” He puts in us is one we have not earned, but one He gives freely to us when we have faith in Him and act our our faith with love. He didn’t do this before. This is a new thing. He blessed David with His Holy Spirit on account of the man’s almost perfect faith. Same with Abraham, Moses, and so many others. He does this for everyone today, who call on the name of Jesus with full sincerity. It is a beautiful thing.

End 2021 Commentary on the Book of Romans.