Twin City church of Christ Blog

Twin City church of Christ Blog

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Aug 7, 2024 - The Forbidden Fruit Syndrome

Tuesday, August 06, 2024

The Forbidden Fruit Syndrome

Reading:  Romans 7:7-12
    
    As Paul discusses the experience of Jews under the Law of Moses, he mentions that “our sinful passions” were “aroused by the law”(Rom 7:5).  How does that work?  Does it mean that a law God gave was evil?  “What then shall we say?  That the law is sin?  By no means!  Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin.  For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’”(Rom 7:7).  The Law of Moses is not sin, but it does define and identify sin.  It tells us where God has drawn the lines and warns us of what will happen when we cross them.   

    But the Law also had a counterintuitive effect:  “But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness”(Rom 7:8).  And again, “sin seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me”(Rom 7:11).  Paul describes an innocent young Jewish boy (Rom 7:9) who learns that covetousness is wrong.  He begins to be curious about it.  Rather than helping him resist sin, the Law tells him what sin is and exactly how to commit it.  The forbidden fruit intrigues him.  Sin he might have avoided springs to life through the Law which forbids it.  This does not mean the Law is the problem; it means that we are the problem.  Paul becomes a sinner, yet “the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good”(Rom 7:12).  The Law has created a problem which he needs more than the Law to escape.

    The forbidden appeals to us.  It draws our attention, ignites our curiosity, and leads us to question why it is forbidden.  Like Eve in the garden, we look longingly at what we cannot have—“good for food,” “a delight to the eyes,” “desired to make one wise”(Gen 3:6).  We convince ourselves it is the answer to our problems.  But the problem is not with God or his laws; the problem is with us.  Law only points us to the need for something beyond law to save us.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why are we attracted to what is forbidden?

One Thing to Pray For:  Courage to trust and obey Jesus’ instructions
 

Aug 6, 2024 - Death and Freedom

Monday, August 05, 2024

Death and Freedom

Reading:  Romans 7:1-6
    
    Paul has been stressing that in our baptism we died to sin (Rom 6:11) so that we no longer live in it.  Here he wants to also say that we have died to the Law of Moses—and are now free to follow Jesus without the Law.  “Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?”(Rom 7:1).  Commitment to law ends when the person dies.  He illustrates by using marriage, which severs the bond between people and makes the surviving mate “free from that law” and able to remarry (Rom 7:3).  Death sets the person free.  “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God”(Rom 7:4).  When we die to sin, we also die to the Law and can now be “married” to Jesus.  Death sets us free.

    But why does dying to sin also mean dying to the Law?  “For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death”(Rom 7:5).  Rather than setting us free, the Law of Moses only worked to arouse our sinful passions (see Rom 7:7-8).  So the Law ironically led us deeper into sin.  “But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code”(Rom 7:6).  The Law became the tool by which sin “held us captive”(Rom 7:6, see 6:17, 20), but “now we are released.”  When Jesus died—and we died with him—that death set us free.

    All of this may seem strange and obscure to people who have never lived under Moses’ Law.  Paul’s point is that we need more than a set of rules to show us how to live.  All rules do is show us our failings and need for help.  Yet to set us free from our sin, we needed someone to die.  Jesus died for us and we died with him.  Now we are free to live for God, empowered by his grace and strength, ready to bear the good fruit he wants to produce in us.

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One Thing to Think About:  Why did God want to give us more than a new set of rules? 

One Thing to Pray For:  Gratitude for Jesus’ death that liberates and transforms me
 

Aug 5, 2024 - Fruit

Sunday, August 04, 2024

Fruit

Reading:  Romans 6:20-23
    
    Bible authors often use the metaphor of fruit to describe the feelings and outcomes our lifestyle produces.  Paul does here to remind us of how desperate our slavery to sin was.  “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.  But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?  For the end of those things is death”(Rom 6:20-21).  Think back to that time.  What good did our lifestyle bring?  What benefits did we receive from it?  What did we do that we could be proud of?  Our lives of sin, when viewed properly, only produce regret, embarrassment, anger, and disappointment.  Even our good deeds are crowded out by our selfishness and stubbornness.  This is poor fruit.

    Now that we serve Jesus, all that has changed.  “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life”(Rom 6:22).  The fruit now is “sanctification”—increased separation from the world and our former life.  We grow to be more like God as we anticipate the eternal life we will inherit.  We see the good in our lifestyle—the patience, peace, and joy it produces.  We can be proud (in the positive way) of the person we are becoming, knowing that it is the fruit of God’s work within us.  We have hope for tomorrow and joy in any circumstance.  “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”(Rom 6:23).  We are now on a path that leads to life.  This is good fruit.  

    Today we would call fruit the “bottom line.”  It is a way of evaluating our course of life by filtering out all the talk and appearances and zeroing in on what it produces.  Because Christians have experienced sin, we know its destructive properties firsthand.  Now we have also experienced the good things God has to offer.  Why would we go back to sin?  Why would we continue in it?  We press on to higher things, bearing good fruit along the way.

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One Thing to Think About:  What fruit have I seen in my life from serving God? 

One Thing to Pray For:  God’s sanctification and its ultimate goal, eternal life
 

Aug 2, 2024 - Under New Management

Thursday, August 01, 2024

Under New Management

Reading:  Romans 6:12-19
    
    Since we have died to sin through Jesus’ sacrifice, we guard against lapsing into our old slavery to sin.  “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions…For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace”(Rom 6:12, 14).  Jesus has broken the hold sin had over us (Rom 6:18), but we can allow sin to take over and dominate us once more.  We have experienced that slavery and the despair it produces; Paul wants us not to go back to slavery.  You are under new management; now live like it!  

     Especially does Paul warn that sin is not something we dip our toes in without consequence.  Sin enslaves.  “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?”(Rom 6:16).  Whatever we may say, we become slaves of the one we actually obey.  Our lives speak louder than our words.  So even though we call ourselves Christians, if we return to our lives of sin, we become slaves again.  “For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification”(Rom 6:19).  Jesus has set you free; now live like it! 

    Christians must think of ourselves as under new management.  Jesus is in charge of my life now.  If I return to that life of sin—if I let sin reign again—if I use my body to obey sin—then I will be enslaved again.  All the progress Jesus has made for me will be brought to nothing.  Paul is arguing that we do not need the Law of Moses to ensure we live righteously (Rom 6:15); we simply need to remember our slavery, what it cost to free us, and whom we now serve.  You belong to Jesus; now live like it!

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One Thing to Think About:  How might I “let sin reign in my mortal body”? 

One Thing to Pray For:  Praise to God for setting me free from my sins and their consequences
 

Aug 1, 2024 - Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Reading:  Romans 6:1-11
    
    Jesus has undone Adam’s sin, leading to the ironic conclusion that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more”(Rom 5:20).  Now Paul asks:  is this the way following Jesus works?  If our sin leads to more grace, do we keep sinning?  “What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?  By no means!  How can we who died to sin still live in it?”(Rom 6:1-2).  This is probably the accusation Jewish observers are making about Paul’s teaching:  if we set the Law of Moses aside and God forgives all our sins, then we can just sin freely.  Paul rejects this.  “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”(Rom 6:3-4).  The answer is that when we came to Christ, we died to sin, we buried our lives of sin, and we began to “walk in newness of life.”

    Especially does Paul want us to think of ourselves as participating in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.  We are “united with him in a death like his”(Rom 6:5), “crucified with him”(Rom 6:6), “have died with Christ”(Rom 6:8) and are “buried…with him”(Rom 6:4).  Then, “just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life”(Rom 6:4).  Christian conversion mirrors Jesus’ sacrifice, but it now leads us to live in a new way, obeying God rather than living in sin, like Jesus (Rom 6:10).  We also have hope in the future:  “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him”(Rom 6:8).  Our new spiritual life promises a future bodily resurrection.  “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus”(Rom 6:11).

    Paul insists that our baptism was not simply a one-time event, but has ongoing significance.  It is in baptism that we bid a final goodbye to our life of sin, contact the power of Jesus’ death, and are raised to new hope and a new kind of life.  We do not perfectly live out our commitment to stop sinning, but we certainly do not “continue in sin that grace may abound.”  Now we live like Jesus:  dead to sin, alive to God.

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One Thing to Think About:  How might this perspective change how I respond to temptations?

One Thing to Pray For:  Proper perspective about my past
 

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