Romans (Program #44) – Saved in Life from Divisiveness

In practicing the church life and the Christian life revealed in the book of Romans, we need to be exercised to keep the oneness by receiving with grace, all genuine believers in Christ, even as God in Christ has received us.

We are going to talk a lot today about the tendency in human beings to be divisive.  Of course, this is really just an extension of our tendency toward individualism.  Individualism is something that we esteem quite highly actually in our American culture.  I think we view it more as a virtue in that context at least.  Why is it not such a virtuous thing, in our Christian life, our church life?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #43) – Saved in Life from Individualism

Salvation is a very comprehensive term.  It involves taking sinners all the way from being redeemed and regenerated to be being glorified with Christ in His glory.

We are going to look again at Romans 5:10 today.  This has become quite a favor verse in the life study of Romans.  We seem to come back again and again.  One of the significant aspects of this verse is that it refers to both our objective salvation, accomplished by Christ’s death and our subjective salvation, which is by the operation of His life.  Why do we need a salvation that is both objective and subjective?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #42) – Saved in Life from Naturalness

Romans can be summarized three words: redemption, life and building. The matter of life is stated clearly in Romans 5:10 “…much more we shall be saved in His life”. If we don’t know life and building, we’re missing two-thirds of God’s salvation.

Romans is arguably the definitive book of the Bible regarding Christian doctrine but we’re finding out that it is much more than that. It is really a book opening the way for all of us, as believers in Christ, to enter into the rich experience of the saving life of Christ everyday.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #41) – Saved in Life from Sin and Worldliness

We can draw water from the wells of salvation and we can be saved day by day in His life. The Bible is a book of life. The gospel of John reveals Christ as life to us but Romans brings us fully into the experience of this life.

This is easily one of the most important portions of the Bible for our Christian life. What is the most marvelous relationship that we’re going to see between the gospel of John and the book of Romans? John shows us that Christ as life meets the need of every man’s case – whatever our case is, whatever kind of need we have, whatever kind of condition or situation we’re in – Christ as life meets our need! But John doesn’t show us in particular the way we can experience Christ as life.  more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #40) – Abiding in Christ by Minding the Spirit

We don’t have a method, we don’t have a technique – we have an all-inclusive Person. If our eyes would be open, we would be exhilarated with the liberty this would bring into our spiritual life. We wouldn’t be praying for this or that – we would just love, enjoy, receive and experience Christ as everything. It’s wonderful!

For centuries Christians have struggled to comprehend the Biblical correct understanding of the Trinity. But today we are going to discover that beyond it’s theological importance, the Trinity is vital to our being able to experience the God of our salvation.  Once again today, we’re in the the very critical eighth chapter of Romans. more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #39) – Life and Death in Romans Five through Eight

The book of Romans chapter 8:10 says “…if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness”. Two parts of the tripartite man are mentioned here with two conditions – the body is dead, the spirit is life.

Our life study today is one of those that presents the Bible in such a marvelous fashion that it has definitely the effect of strengthening our faith in God’s word. The Bible has such a consistent thought and revelation once we have the keys to open it up. We’ll see in this current message how that our natural way of trying to understand the word of God by the principle of right and wrong doesn’t work. Today we are going to see two keys given that really show us the way to get into the Bible in a living way so that it supplies us with life.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #38) – Law in Romans Seven and Eight

Romans chapters 7 and 8 are the most crucial chapters to every Christian in understanding how to live a vital Christian life.

Paul was speaking frankly concerning his experience, what he was doing, what he could do and what he couldn’t do. If ever there was a man that could be good, that was equipped to be good, to fulfill the law and be obedient, this would have been Paul. Yet he met with such experience that he ended up crying “What wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from … this death?” (Romans 7:24) Many many believers identify with that – we feel that we have tried, that we’ve worked, we’ve tried plan A and then we heard plan B. We go from plan to plan, thinking that something is going to finally make this Christian life vital and real to all of us. And, some things help in a little bit and the it seems like somehow the things get shorted out and sometimes disastrously so and yet many times we get up and start again.  more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #37) – Being Freed from Death (2)

We need to call it by its right name – it’s death.  God in His organic salvation has a way of deliverance from it, a way to overcome it – in Christ as our resurrection life.

Today in chapter 8, we’re going to find out about being freed from sin and death.  What is the death that we are being freed from?

Romans 8 is a chapter of experience and the death here is not the physical death to which we are subjected in the old creation.  When we are talking about being free from death, we are not talking about some kind of miraculous cure for our mortality or some premature deliverance from the power of death in a physical way.  Death in Romans 8 is a terrifying and powerful spiritual source and force that has its source in Satan, the origin of death. more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #36) – Being Freed from Death (1)

We sinners are not sinners only because we commit some sin. Through the fall of Adam, we all were constituted sinners by being born in sin.

We’re somewhere at the midpoint in our study of Romans. I think it’d be helpful if we reviewed briefly and summarized the central focus of this book that has been dubbed, as we mentioned before, “The Gospel of God”.  This book of Romans is called “The Gospel of God” because it gives us the full gospel including the judicial redemption by Christ’s death and the organic salvation in His resurrection life. The focus of the revelation of this book is that God is making sons out of sinners to form the Body of Christ to express Christ. In this book, we have seen also that God is expressed in the Son, Jesus Christ, and further that the Son is expressed in a Body. We have seen and we will see further that the Body is expressed in the local churches.

That’s “The gospel of God” and Romans, as we’ve indicated, has also been called the fifth gospel.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS

Romans (Program #35) – Being Freed from Sin, the Law and the Flesh

Our destiny is not merely to go from hell to heaven.  Our destiny is God’s heart desire which is to make us sinners into sons of God, to be constituted the Body of Christ for His glorious expression in this universe.

Many of us know what it is to struggle against sin and the flesh.  And many also know the struggle of never living up to the standard that we or others set for us.  All three requires the freeing of the spirit recorded in Romans chapter 8.  This is our focus of the life-study of the Bible today.

Once again today we look at the tremendous revelation that God is busy making sinners into sons.  Sometimes you hear the word “adopted” inserted into this portion regarding our being the sons of God.   To be a son of God, you need the life of God. The word “adopted” doesn’t do justice simply because of our understanding of “adopted”. more…

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: TuneIn | RSS