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Romans 6:11-12

Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Personal Challenge

Many of the verses leading up to this passage inform us of all the work that Jesus has done to save us from the consequences of our sin. Now, Paul starts turning the spotlight on us and begins to point out those things that we can start doing with respect to sin in our lives. He reminds us that since we have been baptized into Christ that by faith in Him we can identify ourselves as dead to sin. Sin no longer has reign over us because Jesus has defeated sin. If we continue to sin, which we usually do, it is because we continue to submit our will to the lusts, the passions, of our mortal body. From baptism on we are continually working on fortifying our will to obey God and trying to diminish our will to defy God. The Christian life is a continual struggle to follow in the footsteps of our Lord. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Sirach 18:18-20

Before you speak, learn,
And before you get sick, take care of your health.
Before you make a judgment, examine yourself closely,
And in the hour of visitation you will find atonement.
Before you become sick, humble yourself;
And at the time of sinning, prove your conversion.

Personal Challenge

Once again, Sirach provides some powerful words of wisdom that apply to both our everyday living as well as preparation for eternity. Learn before you speak. This is so contrary to our modern, self-focused Way of thinking. Oh, how many times I would have avoided a conflict by applying this truth. Take care of yourself and humble yourself and you will avoid sickness. The first one makes sense, but what does humbling ourselves have to do with avoiding sickness? The act of humbling ourselves puts others first. By doing this We eliminate stress on our bodies and our health by always trying to be first. Examine yourself closely before making a judgment and you will find atonement. Jesus proclaimed this by saying, “Judge not, that you be not judged.” Usually, the act of self-appraisal reminds us that we are in no position to judge another. Great words of wisdom. Now comes the hard part, applying them. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 5:20-21

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Encouraging Words

“Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”. What a blessing it is to know that no matter how much I sin, no matter how big or small that sin is, God’s grace will outweigh that sin. God loves me that much and then infinitely more. Sin is what brings me to death, both physical and spiritual, but Gods’ grace removes the spiritual death and covers me through eternity. It is not anything related to what I do, but all related to what God has done continues to do and will do forevermore. Glory be

to God.

Sirach 18:4-6

Who will measure His majestic power with a number,
And who will add to this measure
While describing His mercies?
There is no one who can add or subtract,
And there is no who can search out the wonders of the Lord.
When a man completes his search, then he starts over;
And when he stops, he will still be perplexed.

Personal Challenge

It is so easy to get caught up in the pursuit of knowledge about God. We truly are a gnostic form of society today. For many, knowledge is power. For many, their identity is found in their knowledge, or the number of acronyms behind their name. However, knowing God is so much different than all of this. God does not want us to know about Him. He wants us to know Him. That is what all of the wisdom writings of the Old Testament teach. Wisdom is personified in Jesus. To know wisdom we must know Jesus. To know Jesus is to know God. The challenge for us finite and limited human beings is that the more we think we know God the more we realize that we do not know Him. His greatness is beyond all that we could ever comprehend and yet He tells us that He dwells within us. The mind is certainly blown apart when it tries to know God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 5:12-13

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned— (For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

Personal Challenge

The Eastern Orthodox Church views this passage so much different than the Western Church does. Adam and Eve sinned. They defied God and chose to disobey His commandment to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Because of their sin, they were clothed in mortal bodies by God and death was introduced into the lives of mankind. This is what we, as the children of Adam and Eve have inherited, death. As mortals, we live in a fallen world and in fallen bodies, so we sin as well. We do not inherit the sin of Adam and Eve. On the contrary, we choose to sin on our own. Where the law enters into the picture is that until Moses introduced God’s law to the Jewish nation, our sin was hard to measure. in some respects, People did not know that they were sinning because there was nothing to measure it against. We have the law, both of Moses and of Jesus, so we have no excuse as to the gravity of our sin, but we also have Jesus who fulfills the law and paved the way for us to follow in His footsteps toward avoiding sin in our lives. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Sirach 17:24-25

How great the mercy of the Lord is,
And His atonement for those who turn to Him.
For all things are not possible for man,
Because a son of man is not immortal.

Personal Challenge

Nothing that happens in life is about us. Every­thing in life really is about God. God is our creator and He created us to be in a relationship with Him, not the other way around. He is our benefactor and Savior and we are lost and hopeless without Him. His mercy abounds above all else in our lives and He is our atonement. We can do nothing without Him for we are mere mortals, however, all things are possible for Him. God is my hope and my salvation. Glory be to God!

Romans 5:8

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Encouraging words

Is this not the ultimate definition and demonstration of total and unconditional love? Jesus knew while he was headed to the cross that He would not only be giving up His life for those who loved Him and desired to be like Him, but also for everyone that would reject Him and all of us who continue to sin day after day. Jesus died for us even as we were still mired in our sins. That is true love. There is no judgment in that love. There is no rejection in that love. So what should be my response to this love? Receive it. Pass it on to others around me. Live my life in a way that honors and respects that love by trying to sin no more. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Sirach 17:5-8

He gave mankind the ability to deliberate,
And a tongue, eyes and ears, and a heart to think with.
He filled them with the skill of comprehension
And showed them good and evil.
He set His eye upon their hearts
To show them the majesty of His works.
They will praise His holy name
So as to fully describe the majesty of His works.

Encouraging Words

Human beings are the only part of creation that God created in His image and breathed His breath of life into. He created us to be in relationship and fellowship with Him. As part of that creation, He gave us the ability to think, to deliberate, to comprehend, and to know the difference between good and evil. And then in His divine wisdom, grace, and mercy, He gave us free will, the ability to choose or reject Him, for it is only in choosing Him that we truly reap. the benefits of His great love for us. Then we can see and understand the great majesty of His works. Glory be to God!

Romans 5:1-5

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Encouraging Words

Rather than penning my own thoughts on this passage, today I am presenting some notes from the Orthodox Study Bible on this issue of justification by faith…

For most of church history, salvation was seen as comprehending all of life: Christians believed in Christ, were baptized, and were nurtured in their salvation in the Church. Key doctrines of the faith centered around the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the atonement.

In Western Europe during the sixteenth century and before, however, justifiable concern arose among the Reformers over a prevailing understanding that salvation depended on human works of merit, and not on the grace and mercy of God. Their rediscovery of Romans 5 lead to the slogan sola fides: justification by faith alone.

This Reformation debate in the West raised the question for the Orthodox East: Why this new polarization of faith and works? It had been settled since the apostolic era that salvation was granted by the mercy of God to righteous men and women. Those baptized into Christ were called to believe in Him and do good works. An opposition of faith versus works was unprecedented in Orthodox thought.

The Orthodox understanding of justification differs from the Protestant in several ways.

1) Justification and the new covenant. When Orthodox Christians approach the doctrine of salvation, the discussion centers around the new covenant. Justification—being or becoming righteous—by faith in God is part of being brought into a covenant relationship with Him. Whereas Israel was under the old covenant, in which salvation came through faith as revealed in the law, the Church is under the new covenant. Salvation comes through faith in Christ, who fulfills the law. We receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us, leading us to the knowledge of God the Father. Rather than justification as a legal acquittal before God, Orthodox believers see justification by faith as a covenant relationship with Him, centered in union with Christ (Rom 6:1–6).

2) Justification and God’s mercy. Orthodoxy emphasizes it is first God’s mercy—not our faith—that saves us. “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom 5:1, 2). It is God who initiates or makes the new covenant with us.

3) Justification by faith is dynamic, not static. For Orthodox Christians, faith is living, dynamic, continuous—never static or merely point-in-time. Faith is not something a Christian exercises only at one critical moment, expecting it to cover all the rest of his life. True faith is not just a decision, it’s a way of life. Thus, the Orthodox Christian sees salvation in at least three aspects: (a) I have been saved, being joined to Christ in Holy Baptism; (b) I am being saved, growing in Christ through the sacramental life of the Church; and (c) I will be saved, by the mercy of God at the Last Judgment.

Justification by faith, though not the major New Testament doctrine for Orthodox as it is for Protestants, poses no problem. But justification by faith alone brings up an objection. It contradicts Scripture, which says, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only” (Jam 2:24). We are “justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law” (Rom 3:28), but nowhere does the Bible say we are justified by faith “alone.” On the contrary, “faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (Jam 2:17).

As Christians we are no longer under the demands of the Old Testament law (Rom 3:20), for Christ has fulfilled the law (Gal 2:21; 3:5, 24). By God’s mercy, we are brought into a new covenant relationship with Him. We who believe are granted entrance into His Kingdom by His grace. Through His mercy, we are justified by faith and empowered by God for good works or deeds of righteousness that bring glory to Him.