Returning to our devotions from the book Romans after the recent diversion into the feast season, our Monday devotions come from Romans 8:1 today.
Reminding ourselves that Chapter 8 follows on Chapter 7, where Paul has just made the point that the law teaches us what is right and wrong. At the same time he makes the point that while we are dead to sin, yet in the flesh, in other words, out of our own strength and sheer willpower, we are unable to keep the law and therefore we are condemned by the law and 'wretched men'.
However, in Romans chapter 8:1-2 he then makes the glorious point that even though we are 'wretched men', Christ has taken the condemnation for us. Thus, its not like sin is not condemned, it's just that Christ has taken the condemnation in our place and therefore...
Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death. AMPC
Let us listen to this song and let it sink in - and the short explanation that follows after it - I don't think I can explain it better.
This past weekend we celebrated Passover, or what some of us know as Easter, weekend. However, in Biblical times the Feast of Passover is comprised of three feasts consisting of Pesach (Passover), Unleavened Bread and First Fruits – the whole feast lasts seven days. There is some overlap in time between these three feast days during that week. You can read about this in Ex 12 and Lev 23. To remind us of the significant symbolism of these feasts, I share with you the following summary.
The feast of Passover
The first Passover was held the night before Israel as a nation was redeemed from Egypt. It was the night when all the firstborn of Egypt died. God told Moses and the people to put blood on the lintels of their doors and when the angel of death came that night, he would pass-over those houses where he saw the blood on the doorposts. However, he would enter those houses where there was no blood on the doorposts. They had to make a meal of lamb and unleavened bread and be ready to move out the next day. I can imagine that there might have been Israelites that did not believe and did not put the blood on their doorposts, it was a choice. They had to act in faith. They had to apply the blood. We know there were Egyptians that moved out of Egypt with the Hebrews - by then they must have believed. Faith is always a freewill choice.
We know that Jesus was our Passover lamb. In 1 Pet 1:18-19 He is described as the Passover lamb without blemish or spot. He was inspected and found to be innocent by Pontius Pilate, who declared Jesus' innocence and washed his hands as a sign of not being accountable for the death of an innocent man. Jesus was crucified at the exact hour that the Passover lambs were sacrificed in the temple. They never broke the bones of the lambs that were sacrificed, Jesus’ bones were not broken either – he was already dead when the soldiers came to do that. This happened in fulfilment of the prophesies we find in Ps34:20 and John 19:34. He fulfilled every aspect of this feast in every way.
Just like the blood of the Passover lamb caused the angel of death in Egypt to pass-over the houses of those who applied it to their doorposts, so does the blood of Jesus cause the angel of death to pass-over those who believe and apply the blood of Jesus to the doorposts of our hearts. When we celebrate Passover, we celebrate Jesus who took our sin upon Himself and made us free of the slavery of sin.
The feast of unleavened bread
Unleavened Bread starts the same day of Pesach but lasts seven days. With the first Passover the people had to eat unleavened bread with the Passover lamb. Partially because there was just no time to leaven the bread as this takes time and they had to be ready to move, so everything had to be done quickly, but also because it symbolized the fact that sin had to be purged from their midst. In this context leaven carries the symbolism of sin that permeates our whole life and therefore we need a redeemer.
The opposite is also true - in Math 13:33 Jesus likens the Kingdom of God to leaven: “He told them still another parable: The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into three measures of flour, until all of it was leavened.” In other words, the important thing we need to see here is that both the kingdom of darkness (sin) and His Kingdom of Light permeates everything and everyone. It ‘takes over’ the whole being of the person, spirit soul and body. This feast reminds us that Jesus was the unleavened bread (the sinless one) who purged us from sin and gave us a new beginning when He was resurrected - a life where our sin has been dealt with on the cross and we can receive the the Spirit of God who now wants to permeate our whole being with the Kingdom of God. Nothing of my old life in sin needs to go into the new life I have in Christ.
The feast of first fruits
This feast was initially a feast where Israel celebrated the first fruits of their harvest. Giving praise to God for His provision to them. This feast is celebrated on the day that we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Paul says the following in his letter to the Corinthians:
1 Cor 15:17-24 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. 20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the first fruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him”. Paul says that Christ is the First Fruits of those raised from the dead. Because Jesus was the first fruits of those that were raised in victory over death we can now rise with Him not only into a new life here on earth but also into an ultimate new life in heaven.
I think this should help us to understand more clearly why Jesus, in Luke 22, when He celebrated the last Passover with His disciples, taught them that the wine is symbolic of His blood and the bread symbolic of His body. He was the Passover lamb that made atonement for our sin, He was the unleavened bread - the sinless One who purges all sin from our life so that the Spirit and Kingdom of God can permeate us body, soul and spirit, and He was the first fruits of those raised in victory over death and sin. Because He rose in victory, we can raise with Him into a new life.
I am deviating from Romans this week and next week Monday in favour of celebrating what we know as Palm Sunday and next week Passover with some thoughts and quick facts:
To understand the
fuller picture of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, we must backtrack a bit into
history and look at the customs of welcoming kings into the city.In 1 Kings 1:39-40 we read of such an example
when Solomon was anointed as king.David
had Nathan the prophet and Zadok the priest anoint Solomon and then they
brought him into the city to sit on David’s throne.Noteworthy in this piece of scripture is that
David told them to let Solomon enter on his mule. Not a horse but a mule.In verse 40 it says: “…and all the people
went after him and the people played the flutes and rejoiced with great joy so
that the earth seemed to split with their sound”. It was customary to accompany
the king’s procession with great jubilation. However, it seems that if a king
were to enter on a horse or with horse and chariot, it meant that he either
came from a war or he was on his way to make war.When the king came riding on a mule he came
in humility and peace.It is highly likely
that the people knew that Solomon entered the city on a mule and would also have
remembered that the Messiah would come from the house of David.Thus, when they welcomed Him into the city,
they welcomed Him in similar manner as to how Solomon was welcomed, with great
enthusiasm, because in their minds the new great king, the Messiah, was being
welcomed.
The One who would
liberate them from Roman rule and Who would establish the great Davidic empire
once again.In their minds this king
would establish a great Hebrew kingdom that would last forever.Without doubt they expected and welcomed
Jesus as their earthly Messiah.
In addition, this
moment was fulfilment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9-12.
In this prophecy we have:
·The crowd’s jubilant rejoicing in welcoming the King.
·He is a King that is just, having salvation, humble, riding on a donkey.
·He will cut off the chariots, horses, and the battle bow. (i.e.,
violence).
·He will speak peace to the nations.
·He will have dominion.
·The blood of His covenant will set the prisoners free from the waterless
pit.
·He invites them to return to His stronghold and calls them prisoners of
hope.
·Promises to restore to them double what was stolen from them if they do.
When Jesus entered
Jerusalem on a donkey and got a King’s welcome, the crowd would have known this
piece of scripture very well.And in
Math 21:9 we read the words with which they welcomed Him: “Hosanna to the
Son of David!”And then they quoted
a scripture from Ps 118:26 saying, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of
the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” They knew the scriptures and the
prophecy from Zechariah.They knew
Solomon came riding on a donkey, they knew the custom of welcoming a king and
they knew the Messiah would come from the house of David.They welcomed Him – but they welcomed Him as
an earthly king.With the expectation of
liberation from the Roman government.There were also those (vs 10) who just had no idea Who He was, they even
asked “Who is this?”
Jesus new all this too
and He was very intentional with His actions.Regardless of the crowd’s expectations, Jesus entered Jerusalem on the
10th of Nisan.It is the day
that the Passover lambs were brought into the city to be inspected.They had to make sure that the lamb had no
spot or blemish, for only a spotless lamb could be sacrificed.Of course, for us it symbolizes that Jesus
was brought into the city and inspected as the Lamb of God.He was found to be spotless and worthy of
being the Lamb of God.He was legally
declared innocent by Pontius Pilate who even washed his hands in an act of
absolving himself from guilt over shedding Jesus’ innocent blood.(1 Pet 1:18-21 and John 19:4.)
On the 10th
of Nisan we remember that Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey.A King that came in humility and peace.To bring peace to the nations.But many did not recognize Him as such.Many asked, “Who is this?” The church of the
day was indignant and incited the people to choose a different Jesus. Yet He
was God’s chosen Lamb without spot or blemish.He was inspected, found innocent and was crucified four days later in
Barabbas’s place.In my place and in
your place.
In Luke 19:41-44 Luke
describes what happened directly before Jesus cleaned out the temple.He wept about Jerusalem; he prophesied the
destruction of Jerusalem uttering these words:
“… because you
did not know the time of your visitation.”
Will we
recognize Him in this time and season of His visitation?
Against the backdrop of Paul's reasoning in Romans 1-6, where he repeatedly explains that we are saved by grace through faith, that we are set free so that we can choose to sin or not, he ends Chapter 6 with the following thought:
Romans 6:21-23
21 What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now thisis quite a profound thought when we carefully think about it. He explains that the wages of sin remains death - even for us who believe and put our faith in Christ for our salvation. When we choose to sin we are still going to reap death as the fruit thereof. Even though our souls are still saved by the grace of God from eternal death, the fruit of sin in this life still remains death. In other words on a Monday morning it looks like this:
If I choose to cheat on my wife or husband, the fruit of that will still be death to the trust and possibly the relationship.
If I steal from my employer, I may still loose my job.
If I commit fraud, I may still end up in jail.
If I cheat on my tax return, I may still end up with a criminal record, fine, or a prison sentence.
And so I can carry on with examples, the wages of sin is death, we cannot continue to make sinful choices and think we are going to reap good fruit and blessings.
However the opposite is all the more true. If we make good choices, the fruit of those choices will be holy and bring life to our relationships, our finances and every area of our life where we apply those principles. Our good fruit will be rewarded by God and those choices lead to everlasting and eternal life, blessings and holiness - starting already in this life and culminating in our eternal life with Christ.
It really is such a simple principle - so why do we continue to make wrong choices? I think this is the point to ponder this week. Why do you and I still continue to make the wrong choices while God gave us the opportunity to make the right choices? Can it be that we continue to give ourselves permission to sin with an attitude of 'it does not matter because we are saved?' Point is, it does matter because choices produce fruit - either for death or for life.
Which choices do you and I have to revisit this week to perhaps change them for the better? To change them into life-giving choices that bear holy fruit into eternity?
Perhaps we can ask the Holy Sprit to become the God of our choices?
