Day 215 Consider Anew

DAY 215

CONSIDER ANEW

Psalm 60, 61 & 62 and Romans 5

Today is another one of those days in Romans where Paul both gives us a key milepost, but then also goes much deeper.

Let’s start with the “milepost” – so far Paul has gone to great lengths to establish each of these few points:

1.      Day 1 of Romans: Everyone should know there is a God…all are without excuse.

2.      Day 2 of Romans: Everyone falls short of being able all by themselves to “be right before God” or in other words no one is perfect…we all fall short.

3.      Day 3 of Romans: When Paul says everyone, he means it, and deals with both Jews and Gentiles…and introduces that it is faith not works which puts us right with God.

4.      Day 4 of Romans: He continues to drive home the point of faith by using both Abraham and David as examples of how God has always been about faith.

Paul has accomplished each of these mileposts with very dense text, laying out point and counterpoint to demonstrate that the summary statements he is making are absolutely defendable and consistent with the Scripture.

So what is today’s milepost? Let’s look at verse one of chapter 5 – we have peace with God. God is not angry with us, we simply need to put our faith not in ourselves, but God. For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us: God is the “prime mover” in our relationship. If we can grasp how God who is beyond description, in the face of our constant rejection of him, died for us, then we will be overwhelmed by His love…not even suffering will dissuade us!

That is the big picture point…and the question that flows from it is, “Are you at that level of relationship with God?” Has the depth of His love penetrated your heart so deeply that you can say “not even suffering will dampen my love for God?”

Does Paul take us deeper into this point? Of course he does. He does so by taking us all the way back to Adam to show God’s complete faithfulness to us!

In verses 12 – 21 we have what may seem a rather confusing point about Adam and Christ. So let’s go a bit deeper. Remember Paul is writing this treatise in a way that no argument can undo what he is asserting. So yesterday he talked about Abraham and David. What if someone were to say “what about Adam and all the people between him and Moses?” Furthermore “all your talk about the law, what about all the people who sinned after Abraham and before the Law?”

Paul begins in verse 12 with “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-- 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. The point here is that breaking the law is a big deal, but, death reigned from Adam forward because of Adam’s disobedience; the absence of the law did not lead to the absence of death.

Then in verses 15, 16 and 17 Paul makes a big point. God’s grace, forgiveness, goodness, etc. are all GREATER. These are not two equally balanced forces – God is greater! Having established that point, Paul returns to Adam in verse 18 to demonstrate that God has accomplished this feat.

Another detail…and it can confuse us…it that Paul is often incorporating into his writing how the Law factors into his argument. This is where it can get tough for us, but Paul is writing to both Jews and Gentiles. He did so in verse 13 and he does it again in verse 20. So a Jewish person might suggest that the giving of the Law started a new point in time for humanity. Paul is saying that the Law merely intensified the human situation…he is dealing how some Jews would see the Law as salvation…but for Paul that would mean it would be about “humans doing good works” vice “having faith in what God has already done.”

All these details serve to drive home the depth of God’s love for us. It can be a bit intellectual, but the goal is not to be smarter, but to be more deeply connected to God through Jesus Christ…pause for a moment and consider anew that Christ died for you, all for love!