What I Learned from Romans Chapter 4

The apostle Paul demonstrates clearly in this chapter that we are saved by faith and by faith alone. I have no problem with the expression “faith alone” if we fully understand the biblical definition of faith. Faith, as defined in scripture, is always active, obedient, doing what God has commanded. It therefore includes works, but the work that saves is the work that God has commanded us to perform. It does not include works that we think might be better or an improvement upon what God has specified.

The biblical definition of faith is found in Hebrews chapter 11. The definition is stated in verse 1 of that chapter, then the rest of the chapter is a rather long list of people who were saved “by faith.” In every case the DID something. They performed a WORK which resulted in their salvation. They did what they were told to do. That’s how it works. Paul tells us in Romans 10:17: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” Faith comes from hearing Christ. Christ (God) tells us what to do and we do it. That is what faith is. Trusting in Christ to the point that we do whatever he commands us to do. And apart from that kind of faith there is no salvation for anyone.

A partial list from Hebrews 11:

• By faith: Abel offered the blood sacrifice God commanded.
• Dead faith: Cain was rejected because his sacrifice was not what God requested.
• By faith: Enoch found salvation by doing the things that pleased God. 
• By faith: Noah built an ark as instructed. He and his family were saved as a result. 
• By faith: Abraham packed up and moved at the command of God. 
• By faith: Sarah and Abraham conceived a son. 
• By faith: Abraham offered his son Isaac as commanded. 
• By faith: Moses left Egypt as commanded.

And the list goes on. In every case something was done “by faith". The expression “by faith” means they were told to do something and they did it. They obeyed the commands of God. They were obedient.

James in his epistle talks about a dead faith — the kind that the devils have. But the devils will not be saved because they do nothing “by faith.” James admonishes his readers not to share this dead faith which is inactive. He pleads with them to show their faith by what they DO. His definition of faith is the same as that of Paul and the Hebrew writer. Faith is living and active — doing whatever it has been commanded to do. Refusing to do what God has commanded is not biblical faith. Doing something other than what God has commanded is not biblical faith either.

Let’s get practical. What has God commanded us to do in order to be saved? Has he asked us to say the sinner’s prayer? Where do we find that command in scripture? I contend that saying the sinner’s prayer for salvation is dead faith. Why? Because it is NOT what God commanded people to do to be saved.

On the day of Pentecost, the people listening to Peter’s 1st gospel sermon asked him what they had to do to be saved. They had already become convicted in their hearts. Peter told them: "Repent, and...be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;….” When they obeyed what God had instructed them to do they received the forgiveness of their sins. Repentance and Baptism were acts of faith. By obeying these commands they were saved, not by the water, but by their faith. By faith they obeyed God. 3000 people were baptized that very day. The jailor of Philippi was baptized the same hour he believed and that was between 12 and 1 in the morning — while everyone else was sleeping….! Saul of Tarsus was told to get up, be baptized and wash away his sins…. These were all works or acts of faith. They were done “by faith.” They were done in obedience to God’s command and resulted in salvation by faith.

We are saved by faith alone when we actively and totally surrender to God. Total surrender means that we continue to live a life of total surrender and obedience. There is no salvation without it and nothing else can substitute for what God has commanded. The works that we do are those prepared beforehand by God for us to do. We do them “by faith.”

Is your faith active and alive? Are you living a life of total surrender and obedience to God? Remember, salvation is by faith alone — doing “by faith” what God has commanded. There can be no substitutions no acts of our own merit, thinking, or imagination. God will accept nothing less than total obedience and submission.

What Time Is It? Romans 5

Romans 5:10 "For if, while being enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, as having been reconciled, shall we be saved in connection with his life;"

"It is something like a man who wakes up, finds that his watch has stopped, and turns on the radio to learn the time. When he hears, he sets his watch by the radio time. What he’s done is to 'reconcile' his watch to the radio." Richards, L. (1990). The 365 Day Devotional Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

I believe it was in 1971 that I bought a Bulova Accutron watch. I wanted it because in Indonesia at that time, it was difficult to always know the exact time. The Bulova Accutron used the vibrations of a tuning fork to keep the watch within a few seconds of the true time thus meeting my needs. I was disappointed later to learn that I could have bought a quartz crystal watch that used an even more accurate technology. These watches still tended to gain or loose several seconds a day, however, and several minutes a month but they were far more accurate than their predecessors.

Today I get accurate time from my cell phone which has access to the atomic clock located in the U. S. Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. This atomic clock will not deviate more than 2 seconds from accurate time for the next 2 billion years!!! An even newer atomic clock has been developed which is accurate to 1 second for an even longer period of time, but may not be in use yet.

Another amazing thing about this new technology is that it is available to us free through WiFi and can be updated to the second every few minutes. Wonderful. No excuses for being late any more.

What does this have to do with Romans 5:10? Well Paul says that we have been reconciled to God through the death of Jesus. Reconciled means that we have been set right with God. L. Richards, a favorite author of mine, gives the example of a watch being reset. Reseting your watch every few minutes to the accuracy of the atomic clock in Washington is like reseting your watch to perfection just as Jesus did in reconciling us to God, Jesus reset us to perfection spiritually. This spiritual reset was not available prior to the death of Jesus on the cross but is available today, free to everyone with a faith connection to Jesus. Jesus is our WiFi continually reseting us to the perfection of God himself.

Do you have a faith connection to Jesus? Have you been reset to the perfection that is God himself? You will still find yourself drifting away from perfection from time to time but with a continual faith connection to Jesus you will continually be reset to perfection. Romans chapter 6 tells us how to get and maintain that faith connection. Get your's today if you don’t already have one. It’s free. And the download speed is out of this world.

What Have I Learned From Romans Chapter 6?

We have been offered LIFE through faith, and PEACE with God. Adam’s work is undone through Jesus. We have been offered justification, sanctification and glorification. We have died to sin, been united with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection and set free to serve him. THEREFORE: sin must not reign over our bodies and our bodies must not be used to sin. Our lives must be presented to God, our body parts used for God’s glory. We must control our thoughts and our environments and deepen our understanding of His word. When Christians believe that their sin does not matter they separate themselves from God because Scripture says: "The wages of sin is death."

In baptism we were crucified, buried and resurrected with Jesus. Just as the Old Testament sinner transferred his sins to the sacrifice by placing his hands on the head of the animal, so we in baptism transfer our sins to our sacrifice by re-enacting his death, burial, and resurrection. We are resurrected to live a new and different life — one free from sin. Faith and baptism are two sides of the same coin. Baptism is the “tails” of the coin with faith as the “head.” You can’t have one without the other. The Hebrews definition of faith includes action: By faith Abel OFFERED…. By faith Noah BUILT…. By faith we are UNITED with Jesus when we are baptized. Notice how baptism is related to salvation in the following verses:             

— Acts 2:38, We are given the remission of sins and the gift of Holy Spirit.

— Mark 16:15 Jesus says that faith + Baptism = salvation

— Acts 22:16 Luke tells us that baptism washes away sin

— 1 Peter 3:20-21 Peter says that baptism saves us

— Acts 10:48 Cornelius was ORDERED to be baptized

— John 3:5 Jesus says that we cannot enter the kingdom of God without baptism      

— Gal 3:27 By being baptized we are clothed with Christ.

                                                     

In baptism we are united with his resurrection. We are united by crucifying the Old man and by living as freed from sin — The old corrupted self — former manner of life with its evil practices.        

I will thank God that all my sins have been transferred to Jesus and I am free because by faith I was united with Jesus in Baptism. We died with Jesus. He was raised never to die again. Death was no longer his master. I, too, have died and now live to God.  I have experienced the crucifixion and resurrection with Jesus.  Eternal life has already begun for me. It is a present reality. My life must reflect this.

What I Have Learned From Romans 7

There have been several times when I was distressed over sin in my life, but I have now come to know that I am a cell within the body of Christ and his blood is flowing through his body cleansing every cell of it’s filth and bringing fresh nourishment. I struggle, but I turn my imperfections over to him and he constantly cleanses me keeping me constantly in a state of perfection because of his blood flowing through his body. God sees me as perfect, flawed though I am, because of the cleansing blood of Jesus.

We died to the law of Moses. In fact we gentiles were never under the law of Moses to begin with and we are not under it today (We are not obligated to keep the letter of the law, but we are taught to keep the "spirit" of the law). We now live under Grace (love) — the perfect law of liberty. He has written his law on our hearts and made it internal rather than external. Let’s listen to our hearts and not to our hormones.

Who will set me free from the body of this death?

The apostle Paul sees a war going on within himself. His spirit wants to do the right things but his body doesn't do them and the things his spirit hates, his body loves (Rom 7:24). He's talking about the sin problem. 

We all sin. There are no perfect people no matter how much we long to be perfect and there is absolutely nothing we can do ourselves that will undo the sin we have already committed. Words once said cannot be unsaid. Things once done cannot be undone. Once we become imperfect, we can never be perfect again by our own efforts. But imperfect people will not live eternally. They will die physically and spiritually. How can we escape this dilemma? 

Frankly, there is no solution to the sin problem other than the one offered by God himself. No one else can solve the sin problem. Humans sin and sin must be punished. It is punished with separation from God because God is perfect and everything in His heaven is perfect or will be eventually. There is no room there for sinful men. 

God's answer to the sin problem is God himself. God himself became a human, a perfect human, a sinless human, and offered himself as a sacrifice for all humans who will believe in him. The perfect died for the imperfect. He who did not deserve to die physically or spiritually, died. He didn't die for his own sins -- he had none. Therefore his death has merit for those who accept God's offer of eternal life. 

So, how do we accept God's offer? We accept this offer of grace (something we receive without deserving it) by faith -- believing that Jesus is God's answer to the sin problem. Our faith leads us live as God wants us to live and to do what God wants us to do. Faith leads us to change our way of life -- to stop doing the things God hates and to start doing the things God loves. Faith also leads us to unite with Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection -- by going through the motions of his death, burial and resurrection (baptism) we are united with perfection. 

In his death, the perfect Jesus was punished for my imperfection -- personal sins.  By uniting with his death, I have been pardoned and have regained my original state of perfection. God changes my status. He no longer sees me as imperfect. When he sees me, he sees Jesus — he sees perfection. I still struggle with sin on the physical level but the Holy Spirit given to me at baptism, helps me to hold on to my faith and struggle to overcome sin in my present life, the blood of Jesus constantly washes me clean and I keep my status of perfection.  And because of that I will not experience the 2nd death — eternal separation from God.

Faith in Jesus, then, is God's answer to the sin problem. His gracious offer is open to everyone, even you. If you haven't yet accepted his gracious offer, why not? God has set before you 2 choices: Life and Death. Choose Life...! 

Eph 2: 8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;

not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

The Suffering of Jesus

The apostle Paul gives us a list of the things he suffered because of his faith in Jesus: 

He was afflicted in every way, persecuted, discouraged, delivered over to death, enduring beatings (times without number), imprisonments, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, 5 times whipped with 39 lashes, stoned and left for dead, 3 times shipwrecked. He was often in danger from rivers, robbers, fellow Jews, non-Jews, in cities and wilderness areas, on the sea, and among false teachers.  He was often cold, suffering from exposure and apart from all this, he was burdened with concern for all the churches. (2 Cor 4:7-19; 6:4-10; 11:23-28)

I've circled the globe more than 40 times (or the equivalent thereof) working with the churches in Indonesia for the better part of 23 years. I've endured 3 heart by-pass surgeries, 2 heart attacks and now wear a defibrillator. Folks thank me for the suffering I've endured for Jesus, but compared to Paul, I really have not suffered at all. 

And I'm sure Paul would agree with me that neither of us has suffered at all when compared to that which Jesus endured while hanging from the cross. I'm convinced that many of us neither fully understand the depth nor the profundity of what Jesus suffered there. It wasn't just a physical death.   

What Jesus suffered was nothing less than the consequences AND the punishment for the sins of the whole world. The consequence of sin is physical death or the separation of the spirit from the body. Everyone suffers that kind of death eventually -- believers and unbelievers alike. The punishment for sin, however,  is separation of our spirit from God. Unbelievers, the apostle John tells us, will suffer the 2nd death or eternal separation from God but believers have no fear of the 2nd death. And the reason we have no fear of the 2nd death is because Jesus suffered it for us. He took our sins upon himself and in doing so separated himself from God for a time. How long, I do not know. But if he was not separated from God, then our sins are still unpunished and we are without hope of eternal life. 

No wonder Jesus sweat blood while praying the night before his crucifixion. No wonder he requested, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." The blackness of hell, separation from the Father, even if only for an instant, would have been the ultimate suffering for Jesus. Every other form of cruelty or torture would pale in comparison. But he went through with God's eternal plan. He suffered the ultimate because he loved the Father AND he loved his creation -- you and me. He love us SO much that he suffered our punishment for us, satisfying what had to be satisfied to make it possible for the sinful to be regarded as sinless. Only then would we be able to live eternally. 

Thank you, God, for sending Jesus. And thank you, Jesus, for suffering the punishment of sin, making it possible for us to live eternally. Thank you. We will sing your praises throughout the endless ages of eternity. Great is our God and worthy to be praised, Amen. Come Lord Jesus. 

Who can argue with God?

Who can argue with God? 

If God has JUSTIFIED us, who can undo that justification? Has Jesus, our attorney, ever lost a case? Has Satan, our adversary, ever won a case in God’s courtroom? Has he ever presented an argument that God or Christ could not answer? But Satan will argue, “He’s a sinner, and that cannot be denied!” Jesus will respond, “Yes, he is a sinner…BUT I have already suffered the penalty for his sins. He can no longer be charged for those sins because the penalty has already been discharged.” And the judge will say, “Case dismissed!” And we will walk away into eternal life. In God's courtroom, there is absolutely nothing in or out of our universe that can win it's case against us. "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.".

Romans 8:

33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;

34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was ^craised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.

35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36 Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;

We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

37 But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,

39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Earth As We See It Today is Not The Planet God Originally Created

ROM 8:19-22

I believe Paul is talking here about the created universe or what we see around us. The physical universe is suffering now and will be set right when Christ returns. This planet is not the planet God originally created.  The EARTH was cursed when Adam sinned. So this planet waits anxiously to be freed from the curse. When Christ returns, the curse will be removed and the planet restored to what it was before Adam’s sin. Just as believers will be restored to Adam’s condition before the fall. What that new heaven and earth will be like is beyond our wildest dreams. Our mind cannot even begin to imagine it and no science fiction movie or book will ever be able to picture it. 

19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.

20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope

21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Merry Christmas & A Very Happy New Year

Jean Cate

Merry Christmas and A Very Happy New Year

This year began on a sad note for me personally. I lost several of my closest friends during the months of January, February and March. I thought the list was never going to end but it did. The sadness of one funeral, however, was offset by the opportunity to showcase the considerable talents of my oldest granddaughter who traveled with me and made a presentation concerning our family’s work in Indonesia. June and July found me on the islands of Java and Nias participating in the work there along with our 3 sons: Scott, Brett and Eric. I arrived home from that trip to immediately spend 5 days in intensive care and another 6 days at a rehab center. Having recovered now, Scott and I are planning another trip next January or February. 

Jeanie continues to work so I can play. She’s still quilting beautiful quilts and enjoys teaching her Sunday school class. She stays busier than I do, actually, and continues to be in good health. 

We both pray God’s richest blessings for you in the coming year. Keep in touch. 

With all our love,

Steve and Jean Cate

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