Today's readings conclude our time together with select chapters from Romans and from Isaiah. They hopefully help summarize the basic theological themes that we find as we go through the Bible. We have already been through this material before. These are great anchor chapters to inform how we read the rest of the Bible. May this be a blessing to you!
Romans 5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.
And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.
For at just the right time, while we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.
But God proves His love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him!
For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!
Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, so also death was passed on to all men, because all sinned.
For sin was in the world before the law was given; but sin is not taken into account when there is no law.
Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who did not sin in the way that Adam transgressed. He is a pattern of the One to come.
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many!
Again, the gift is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment that followed one sin brought condemnation, but the gift that followed many trespasses brought justification.
For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive an abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
So then, just as one trespass brought condemnation for all men, so also one act of righteousness brought justification and life for all men.
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The law came in so that the trespass would increase; but where sin increased, grace increased all the more,
so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6
What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?
Or aren’t you aware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with Him like this in His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection.
We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.
For anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.
For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, He cannot die again; death no longer has dominion over Him.
The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God. So you too must count yourselves 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 desires.
Do not present the parts of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and present the parts of your body to Him as instruments of righteousness.
For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under grace? Certainly not!
Do you not know that when you offer yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, whether you are slaves to sin leading to death, or to obedience leading to righteousness?
But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed.
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness.
What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 7
Do you not know, brothers (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law and is not an adulteress, even if she marries another man.
Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
For when we lived according to the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, bearing fruit for death.
But now, having died to what bound us, we have been released from the law, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have been mindful of sin if not for the law. For I would not have been aware of coveting if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”
But sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.
So I discovered that the very commandment that was meant to bring life actually brought death.
For sin, seizing its opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through the commandment put me to death.
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous, and good.
Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Certainly not! But in order that sin might be exposed as sin, it produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do.
And if I do what I do not want to do, I admit that the law is good. In that case, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh; for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the evil I do not want to do. And if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So this is the principle I have discovered: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law.
But I see another law at work in my body, warring against the law of my mind and holding me captive to the law of sin that dwells within me.
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with my mind I serve the law of God, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Romans 8
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death.
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh,
so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
The mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.
And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.
I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.
For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope
that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.
Not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how we ought to pray, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans too deep for words.
And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
And we know that God works all things together for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.
For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.
And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.
What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is there to condemn us? For Christ Jesus, who died, and more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God—and He is interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Isaiah 55
“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you without money,
come, buy, and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost!
Why spend money on that which is not bread,
and your labor on that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
Incline your ear and come to Me;
listen, so that your soul may live.
I will make with you an everlasting covenant—
My loving devotion promised to David.
Behold, I have made him a witness to the nations,
a leader and commander of the peoples.
Surely you will summon a nation you do not know,
and nations who do not know you will run to you.
For the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel,
has bestowed glory on you.”
Seek the LORD while He may be found;
call on Him while He is near.
Let the wicked man forsake his own way
and the unrighteous man his own thoughts;
let him return to the LORD,
that He may have compassion,
and to our God,
for He will freely pardon.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways My ways,”
declares the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so My ways are higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts.
For just as rain and snow fall from heaven
and do not return without watering the earth,
making it bud and sprout,
and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
so My word that proceeds from My mouth
will not return to Me empty,
but it will accomplish what I please,
and it will prosper where I send it.
You will indeed go out with joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush, a cypress will grow,
and instead of the brier, a myrtle will spring up;
they will make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign, never to be destroyed.”
Isaiah 61
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me,
because the LORD has anointed Me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives
and freedom to the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
and the day of our God’s vengeance,
to comfort all who mourn,
to console the mourners in Zion—
to give them a crown of beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins;
they will restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities,
the desolations of many generations.
Strangers will stand and feed your flocks,
and foreigners will be your plowmen and vinedressers.
But you will be called the priests of the LORD;
they will speak of you as ministers of our God;
you will feed on the wealth of nations,
and you will boast in their riches.
Instead of shame, My people will have a double portion,
and instead of humiliation, they will rejoice in their share;
and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
and everlasting joy will be theirs.
For I, the LORD, love justice;
I hate robbery and iniquity;
in My faithfulness I will give them their recompense
and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations,
and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge
that they are a people the LORD has blessed.
I will rejoice greatly in the LORD,
my soul will exult in my God;
for He has clothed me with garments of salvation
and wrapped me in a robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom wears a priestly headdress,
as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
For as the earth brings forth its growth,
and as a garden enables seed to spring up,
so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.
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