Freedom For Today

Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Romans 9 before reading the devotional below.

We are reading all of Romans 9 today instead of splitting it into two pieces because this chapter is really one whole part of Paul’s theological framework. Recall that Paul is writing to a mixed church of Jews and Gentiles, and this idea of allowing Gentiles into relationship with God feels very new to the Jewish people. In reality, there are several examples throughout the Old Testament of God accepting Gentiles into his family (like Rahab and Ruth). But overall the Jewish people had God all to themselves and they had to protect that from outside influence for generations.

Here Paul is trying to prove his commitment to the Jewish people. His focus on the salvation of the Gentiles does not mean he has left the Jews behind. Paul affirms the special place of the Jewish people, but he also points out that God chose specific people along the way. He uses Jewish history to trace this journey and makes the argument that God can save whoever he wants to save.

Here’s your freedom for today: you have been invited into God’s grace. You can’t get to God by yourself no matter who you are. Even God’s special people who had his law and his promises could not keep up their end of relationship with God. The Gentiles didn’t have this spiritual awareness, and they too proved to be sinners. We are all in the same boat, whether you were raised in church or know the right prayers to pray or have never heard of Jesus before. We are sinners saved exclusively by the grace of God. Not grace plus a good job on our part. Grace. Period. Not one ounce of your relationship with God depends on you.

Take a moment to read Romans 8:18-39 before reading the devotional below.

Whatever you are going through right now, God has something that will outdo all the pain you’ve had to endure. God does not delight in our suffering, and he in the process of saving not only us, but the whole planet. The earth did not sign up for being put under a curse — it was the sin of Adam and Eve that began the slow decay and destruction of our world. God is restoring us and his world, and he is doing it through the followers of Jesus (known as the church or the body of Christ).

The Holy Spirit helps us, tells us how to pray, leads and guides our lives. We have a part in restoring things back to God’s design because he dwells inside us. God desires for everyone to be a follower of Jesus, and those who receive him are chosen for a special task. We are called to advance the kingdom of God through the spread of the Gospel (all this good news Paul keeps talking about) and through the restoration of the world. We are so intertwined with the love of God and the Spirit of God, we are able to carry out this work supernaturally.

Here’s your freedom for today: God’s not going to let go of you. The power of hell has nothing on the power of God’s love, and it isn’t changing. He has literally moved heaven and earth for you, and he has invited you to join his work by moving mountains for others to find God. This is an all-hands-on-deck kind of mission, but it rests squarely on God’s shoulders. Imagine if there were a flood coming, and the governor called for everyone to help place sandbags along key points. Anyone who shows up can be given a job and they can help with the work, but the governor remains in charge of the operation. God’s love ties you to him and invites you into a supernatural movement to bring his kingdom back in full. He’s got you — will you come with him on the mission?

Take a moment to read Romans 8:1-17 before reading the devotional below.

As we continue to follow Paul’s in-depth explanation of salvation through Jesus, he shows us a beautiful picture of how God’s justice and his love go together. God established a rule of law to protect his people. After all, no one wants to live in a lawless society because that only breeds evil. Laws require a backbone of some kind — a way of enforcing justice when people break the law. But because God’s laws reveal the perfection of his kingdom, we cannot follow all of them no matter how hard we try. As we discussed in yesterday’s post, God is not surprised by our inability to avoid sin.

Verse 3 tells us that “God did what the law could not do.” He upheld justice by allowing Jesus to fulfill the laws’ requirements of death. How is that fair? It isn’t. But in ways we can barely comprehend, it is just. Justice demands payment — like an overdue bill. The credit card company doesn’t care who pays, they just want the money. Justice is satisfied when the debt is paid. Our earthly legal system is inherently unjust, making it hard for us to understand fully God’s justice. But his love for us brought him to the point of being willing to cover for us. To pay what we could not.

Here’s your freedom for today: you don’t have to be afraid anymore. Living by the Spirit is a totally different kind of life. The power of the Holy Spirit gives you access to God’s ways from the inside-out, and you no longer owe a debt to sin. When you stay in tune with the Spirit, your flesh can’t control you. And it certainly won’t own you for eternity. In this fallen world, sometimes it is hard to remain aligned with the Spirit 100% of the time because your flesh tempts you to sin over and over again. Life in the Spirit is like a drink of fresh water in a desert — when you find it, you are restored and brought back to life once again.

 

Take a moment to read Romans 7:14-25 before reading the devotional below.

This is perhaps the most relateable chapter in all of the Bible. Paul captures the inner struggle that we all face — we know what we want to do, we have good intentions, yet we continually sin and fail. Paul is continuing to build his argument about why the Jewish law was not enough for salvation. The law is good, it reveals God’s heart, it shows us a good way to live. But following the law perfectly is impossible. Even when you study it and set your heart on doing exactly what God wants, you will fail.

Paul is using himself as an illustration, showing that there is no spiritual peak we all can climb to where we will no longer struggle. If Paul, called by God to be an apostle, isn’t a spiritual giant who can rise above sin, then none of us have a shot either. Paul does a great job of capturing the war between our flesh and our spirit. We are divided creatures.

Here’s your freedom for today: God is not surprised by your struggle. God did not hand down his laws and find himself shocked that no one could follow them. He gave the law knowing that humans living in a cursed world could never work their way out of it. Over and over again, Paul reminds us that God gave us the law in order to reveal our total inability to get right with God on our own. We need a Savior. You need a Savior. I need a Savior. Jesus came to fulfill the law, release us from our obligation to sin, and bring us back into a right relationship with God. Even when you don’t get it right, and you try and fail (again), God just wants to love you.

Take a moment to read Romans 7:1-13 before reading the devotional below.

In today’s passage, Paul uses the Jews’ deep understanding of the law to help them understand the concept of death to the power of sin. It is tempting for us to read the first three verses of this chapter as a pronouncement (or clarification) of law. But that would miss the entire point. Paul is not saying, “Here is how you need to understand marriage and how it works legally.” He is simply using an illustration the people will understand: you know how the law releases you from marriage after a person dies? That’s how your obligation to sin ends too.

When you die to yourself by handing yourself over to God completely, you participate in Jesus’ death. There is a sacrifice made to God that produces a removal of sin. When you journey into a new life with Jesus, you have no obligation to sin anymore. The law doesn’t own you anymore.

Here’s your freedom for today: you do the right thing when you have the right reason. Simply having a law that says, “Don’t do this” will not be enough to stop you from doing it. If you think you can get away with something and you just want to look good in front of other people, you will break the law repeatedly. Those who have studied the process of moral development have found that higher levels of morality involve doing the right thing because you want it. If I only slow down in a school zone because a sign is posted, then what happens if the sign falls down? Will I speed right through? Or do I care enough about the safety of the children that I will voluntarily slow down because I believe it to be best? When you turn your life over to God and he gives you his Holy Spirit, you begin the process of heart transformation. The law has no power and you don’t need it anyway. You start wanting what God wants for all the right reasons.