Worship for Today: God's indescribable gift!

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing,
majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Romans 7:4-6,

"So, 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 were controlled
by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at
work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying
to what once 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."

Paul makes a wonderful point here about the Ten Commandments. In the
previous chapter he said, "Don't you know 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 live a new life." Romans 6:3-4. In this chapter he
points out that our "death" - our rebirth - results in our belonging
to Jesus Christ instead of the law. Those who have not embraced Jesus
Christ in faith belong to the law and will be judged by it. Since all
sin, all who do not belong to Jesus Christ will die an eternal death
in a fiery lake of burning sulfur.

Since we died to the law and have been united with Jesus Christ, we
are no longer under it. We serve in the newness of the Spirit and not
in the old way of law-keeping, the Ten Commandments and the other
commands contained in Moses' writings. Paul goes on to use the tenth
commandment as an example of how the Lord uses the commandments to
bring us to Christ. These laws show we are sinners and in need of
salvation. Now that salvation has come we serve in the new way of the
Spirit.

Our God is not a moral principle, an impersonal and unhappy
taskmaster. He gave us the law to show how corrupt sin has made us and
show us our need for righteousness, a righteousness not available by
law-keeping but freely given in Jesus Christ through faith in him.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!

Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com