The 260 Journey

Day 124

Today’s Reading: Romans 7

The Nuremberg war-crime trials were trials of some of the most wicked men who ever lived. They were responsible for the deaths of six million Jews during the Holocaust. One of those men was Adolf Eichmann, who killed millions of people in concentration camps during World War II.

Holocaust survivor Yehiel Dinur witnessed Eichmann’s trial. He entered the courtroom and stared at Eichmann behind a bullet-proof glass. The courtroom was hushed as victims confronted their butcher. Dinur began to sob and collapsed onto the floor. Many assumed he was overcome by anger or bitterness. However, Dinur later explained to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes that he had been overtaken by a horrific realization: “I was afraid about myself,” he said. “I saw that I am capable to do this I am . . . exactly like [Eichmann].”

Wallace concluded the segment with these thoughts: “How was it possible for a man to act as Eichmann acted? “Was he a monster? A madman? Or was he perhaps something even more terrifying: was he normal?” He closed by telling his viewers that “Eichman is in all of us.”

In a moment of chilling clarity, Yehiel Dinur saw beneath the skin. We are not morally neutral. We’ve often heard the question, “Why do good people do bad things?” The more appropriate question is, “Why do bad people do good things?” As Augustine said: “My sin was all the more incurable because I did not think myself a sinner.”

This idea is what Romans 7 is all about—the infection called sin that’s in all of us. Paul makes it personal, by starting with himself (see verses 9, 11, 13-14, and 17). He reminds us that the great apostle is a great sinner.

Sin is the potential evil in all of us. No one has sinned in such a way that others couldn’t also sin. We are all infected by this devastating disease.

Listen to how Paul speaks of this disease:

I’m a mystery to myself, for I want to do what is right, but end up doing what my moral instincts condemn. And if my behavior is not in line with my desire, my conscience still confirms the excellence of the law. And now I realize that it is no longer my true self doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin in my humanity. For I know that nothing good lives within the flesh of my fallen humanity. The longings to do what is right are within me, but willpower is not enough to accomplish it. My lofty desires to do what is good are dashed when I do the things I want to avoid. So if my behavior contradicts my desires to do good, I must conclude that it’s not my true identity doing it, but the unwelcome intruder of sin hindering me from being who I really am. (Romans 7:15-20, TPT)

Listen to verse 18 again: “I know that nothing good lives within.” This is a powerful statement. Why? If Paul reached this conclusion, we all must reach this conclusion.

Have you reached that conclusion about yourself? Have you ever, without hesitation or reservation, put yourself before God and said, “I do here and now solemnly believe and attest and vow and declare that in me no good thing dwells”?

This hesitation is what holds people back from being born again. They still hold on to the idea that we are all essentially good people. Think about it. Why would God have to send His Son Jesus to die the awful death on the cross if you and I are more or less good and our goodness is what will get us to heaven? If that idea is true, then God is guilty of the worst case of child abuse in human history. It’s illogical.

Someone once said, “God formed man, sin deformed him, education informs him, religion may reform him, but only Jesus Christ can transform him.” The transformation starts with the acknowledgment that “no good thing dwells within me.” Sin deceives us by making us think that we are good and that our goodness impresses God.

Let me tell you what “religion” is. It’s humans exhausting themselves to impress God enough that He will invite them to His house in heaven to live forever. It’s the belief that we can influence God.

Watchman Nee tells a story of watching a man drown while an expert swimmer who had all the ability to save him watched from the dock without moving. When it looked as though the man was going down for the last time, the swimmer jumped in to save the man. The swimmer explained his motive to Nee, saying that going any earlier would have drowned them both. “A drowning man cannot be saved until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save himself," he said.

When we give up, then God takes over. He is waiting until we are at the end of our strength and we realize we cannot defeat the sin inside of us by sheer willpower.

"I" is all over Romans 7 until Paul lets out a final cry in the penultimate verse: “What an agonizing situation I am in! So who has the power to rescue this miserable man from the unwelcome intruder of sin and death?” (verse 24, TPT).

And then no more "I"s. The rescuer jumps in the water to save the drowning man who’s going under. Paul closes out the chapter by showing us who can rescue us: “The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does” (verse 25, MSG).

Day 123

Today’s Reading: Romans 6

There is probably not a better chapter in the New Testament that deals with the relationship between Christians and sin than Romans 6. That relationship is—there is no relationship. You have victory because sin is no longer in charge. There’s a new King on the throne of your heart.

C. H. Spurgeon was right when he said, “Sin murdered Christ; will you be a friend to it? Sin pierced the heart of the Incarnate God; can you love it?” We can’t be a friend to sin. We have a new friend and our new friend is now our King:

Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:12-14)

“Do not let sin reign in your mortal body” (verse 12). The word "reign" is a word for a king or royal who is in charge of a nation and has the throne. Paul is saying that when you get saved, sin is dethroned from the throne of your heart. Now King Jesus sits as the sole authority and He has no rivals. There may be fighters, but no rivals. There may be a coup here and there, but no one ultimately defeats this new King.

Sin may be present and sin may fight, but sin will never again be king of your heart. Just because sin fights doesn’t mean it is in charge. Always remember that!

Our sin leaves us in a knot, and we need God’s help to unties it. That’s what happens at salvation. He unravels sin and gives us new life. He undoes the knot of sin. Yet humanity tries to redefine the very thing for which Christ died and set us free.

• Man calls it an accident; God calls it an abomination.
• Man calls it a blunder; God calls it blindness.
• Man calls it a defect; God calls it a disease.
• Man calls it a chance; God calls it a choice.
• Man calls it an error; God calls it an enmity.
• Man calls it a fascination; God calls it a fatality.
• Man calls it an infirmity; God calls it iniquity.
• Man calls it a luxury; God calls it leprosy.
• Man calls it liberty; God calls it lawlessness.
• Man calls it a trifle; God calls it a tragedy.
• Man calls it a mistake; God calls it madness.
• Man calls it a weakness; God calls it willfulness.

Paul goes on to say in verse 13: “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” This verse is important for our understanding of the new King in our hearts. Paul tells us three important things:

1. We surrender to a person. We do not surrender to an idea, a denomination, a church, Protestantism, or Catholicism. The Bible says, “present yourselves to God.” No church can fight off sin like King Jesus.

2. We surrender for a purpose. Paul said, “as instruments” not as ornaments. The purpose in our surrender, it leads to something—righteousness. What are the instruments? The members of our bodies. We surrender our minds, our hands, our creativity, our eyes—all to the King.

3. We surrender at a price. Don’t miss the part that says “as those alive from the dead.” There is something costly here. Jesus paid the price for our resurrection. As Ravi Zacharias said:

“Jesus Christ did not come to make bad people good, but to make dead people alive.” We were dead and King Jesus gave us new life. Something sin never did. Listen to what R. C. Sproul reminds us about sin: “I have committed many sins in my life. Not one of my sins has ever made me happy.”

Our new King brings joy to us and tells us sin is not in charge anymore. The Message translation captures the concept of sin being rendered powerless when Jesus comes into our lives particularly well:

You must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and fulltime—remember, you’ve been raised from the dead!—into God’s way of doing things. Sin can’t tell you how to live. After all, you’re not living under that old tyranny any longer. You’re living in the freedom of God. (Romans 6:12-14)

Wow! Sin doesn’t get a vote and sin can’t tell us how to live. There’s a new King on the throne.

Day 122

Today’s Reading: Romans 5

In today’s reading, we land on Romans 5 and see a different kind of praise. Praise that I don’t think is done in the church. It’s a new kind of praise for your repertoire.

God gives us to much to praise. In Romans 5:1-2, Paul reminds us of the greatest thing to thank God for: “Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2).

The Message takes the last phase, "exult in hope of the glory of God," and paraphrases it: “standing tall and shouting our praise.” We praise God that we have peace with God through Jesus. That last part is really important: “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not through our promises or our good deeds, but through what Jesus has done on the cross. We don’t get anything from God unless it is through Jesus Christ.

In June 2006, Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest man at the time, announced that he would donate 85 percent of his forty-four-billion-dollar fortune to five charitable foundations. Commenting on this extreme level of generosity, Buffett said: “There is more than one way to get to heaven, but this is a great way.”

Sorry, Warren, that just isn’t true. You may know a lot about investments, but you don’t know much about heaven. Religion says, "If I change, God will love me." The gospel says, "God’s love changes people." This is a blessing worthy of praising God.

But it isn’t this praise that I struggle with. My problem is with the second praise:

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope. (Romans 5:1-4)

Or as The Message says, “We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us.” Are you kidding me? Exult in our tribulations? I can praise Him for grace and peace—but not for tribulations.

How can I exalt when things are falling apart?

How can I worship when I’m crying on the inside?

How can I dance when I am hurting?

What I have learned is that praise has nothing to do with music. Songs may help, but we don’t need them to praise God. Praise goes deeper than a melody line. When we praise God in trials, it means we know something beyond the music. We see a little further than the present.

What do we see? That something is on the other side of our painful situations, for “tribulation brings about . . .” something that could not come from music. Paul says that proven character is on the other side. Perseverance is on the other side. Hope is on the other side.

That means the music in our church doesn’t have to be that good to praise Him. We can praise God for the other side of our painful tribulation.

Romans 5:1-2 praise happens every Sunday. It’s the Romans 5:3-4 praise at which I need to get better.

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying, “There are two times to praise the Lord: when you feel like it, and when you don’t.” Essentially, when we praise we are saying what David said in Psalm 34:1: “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.”

Let’s add Romans 5:3-4 praise to our repertoire this Sunday—and every day. Even in our tribulations, we can exult God.

Day 121

Today’s Reading: Romans 4

Romans 4 is just as much a faith chapter as is Hebrews 11, which gets called the hall of faith. Romans 4 gives us a ground level look of the steps of faith of the father of faith, Abraham. Paul shows us a specific situation Abraham had to walk out in faith and how he did it. And then Paul encourages us to “follow in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham” (verse 12).

Let me take you to the dead of winter in the Midwest. Overnight a foot of snow has fallen, and today, you have to trudge through that snow as you walk to the train or bus. In that much snow, you don’t step in fresh snow, you step in steps—the footprints of people who went before you. They left a track that makes it a bit easier for you to negotiate the terrain. The easiest way to walk then is to put your feet where feet have been. Step in their steps and it makes the journey easier. So let’s look for those steps that Abraham already laid for us, and step in his steps.

Let’s first refresh our memories about the story that underlies Abraham’s steps of faith. God promised Abraham and Sarah, his wife, a baby. The problem: he was one hundred years old and she was ninety. I’m not a doctor, but I think this is a problem . . . unless you have an even bigger God involved in the situation. And Abraham did.

What steps did Abraham leave for us to walk in?

First, faith doesn’t ignore the raw and discouraging facts that are staring us in the face. Real faith is able to look at what really exists. This is the kind of faith Abraham had: “Without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb” (Romans 4:19).

Abraham contemplated. That means he looked at the facts carefully and with great deliberation, looking at every possibility, leaving nothing out. Here is what Abraham knew to be the facts: In regards to himself, at one hundred years old, his body was as good as dead. Regarding his wife, Sarah, at ninety years old, her womb was dead.

Smith Wigglesworth once said, “I am not moved by what I see. I am moved only by what I believe.” Faith looks at the situation and faces it. And Abraham’s situation looked impossible.

Second, faith finds good footing in God’s Word. I have a Bible that puts in capital letters any Old Testament passage quoted in the New Testament. In verses 17 and 18, that happens twice. It is Abraham going back to what God told him. The two times the capital letters are used are God speaking to Abraham:

(As it is written, “A father of many natIons I have made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist. In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”

As it was written about Abraham, “A father of many nations I have made you.” That is future. But in the present, he was father of no one.

You can be honest about what the situation looks like. But you then must find yourself speaking more about what God says to your situation in the Word of God. Staying close to God’s Word will help you speak into future instead of complaining about your present circumstances. Fill your mouth with what He promised, His Word.

Finally, the God you believe in will determine your faith level. There is a biblical phrase used many times about Abraham: “Abraham believed God.” It is used all over the Bible—from Genesis to Romans, Galatians to James. But what makes the phrase valid is that there is another phrase associated with Abraham in the Bible just like this one. It’s in 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, and James. And I think it has something to do with the first phrase. The second phrase determined his faith level. It is friend of God. Friend of God makes belief in God easy.

Abraham could say, “Regardless of what circumstances I am facing, my Friend is with me.” The God Abraham believed in was his Friend. He trusted his Friend.

That’s why when you connect Abraham’s raw circumstances with his faith in his Friend, you get these verses that The Passion Translation makes come alive:

In spite of being nearly one hundred years old when the promise of having a son was made, his faith was so strong that it could not be undermined by the fact that he and Sarah were incapable of conceiving a child. He never stopped believing God’s promise, for he was made strong in his faith to father a child. And because he was mighty in faith and convinced that God had all the power needed to fulfill his promises, Abraham glorified God! (Romans 4:19-20, TPT)

Edna Butterfield tells one of my favorite stories of what faith is. Her husband, Ron, works with teenage children who have severe learning disabilities. And Ron started looking at his students’ capabilities rather than their limitations, so he got them to play chess, restore furniture, and repair electrical appliances. Most important, he taught them to believe in themselves. Young Bobby was one of those boys. And he soon proved how well he had learned that last lesson of belief. One day he brought in a broken toaster to repair. He carried the toaster tucked under one arm and a half-loaf of bread under the other.

That’s faith.

The broken toaster of Romans 4—that’s the age of Abraham and Sarah.

The loaf of bread of Romans 4—that’s painting the baby’s room blue, because it’s going to be a boy, and they will name that little loaf of bread . . . Isaac.

Day 120

Today’s Reading: Romans 3

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin lectures throughout the United States on the positive and negative impacts of words. He often asks audiences if they could go twenty-four hours without saying any unkind words to, or about, another person. More often than not, only a few people raise their hands. He tells everyone else,

All of you who can’t answer "yes" . . . must recognize how serious a problem you have. Because if I asked you to go for twenty-four hours without drinking liquor, and you said, “I can’t do that,” I’d tell you, “Then you must recognize that you’re an alcoholic.” And if I asked you to go for twenty-four hours without smoking a cigarette, or drinking coffee, and you said, “That’s impossible,” that would mean that you’re addicted to nicotine or caffeine. Similarly, if you can’t go for twenty-four hours without saying unkind words about or to others, then you’ve lost control over your tongue.”

We have a tongue issue because we have a heart issue. Every person’s heart is faced with a serious issue called "sin." It isn’t until our hearts are changed that our words change. God is the only one who can change our heart and fix the sin issue.

Romans 3 reminds us that all of humanity has a sin issue that needs to be fixed: “We have already made the charge the Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’” (verses 9-10, NIV).

No one is righteous . . . not even one. Regarding sin in the world, Reinhold Niebuhr said something profound: “Most of the evil in this world does not come from evil people. It comes from people who consider themselves good.” We are all sinners; no one is good.

A British newspaper editor once asked G. K. Chesterton, “What’s wrong with the world?” Without missing a beat, Chesterton replied simply, “I am.” He realized that sin is devastating to the individual and humanity. How devastating?

Charles Finney was right when he said: “Sin is the most expensive thing in the universe. . . . If it is forgiven sin, it cost God His only Son. . . . If it is unforgiven sin, it costs the sinner his soul and an eternity in hell.”

Right after Paul reminds us that we are all under sin—and that no one is excluded from this pronouncement—he uncovers a huge revelation. He shows us where sin shows up consistently. You have to pay attention to see it. Remember Paul has just said in verse 10 that “there is none righteous, no not one.”

Now he says in verses 11-15:

There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. “Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.” “The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood.” (NIV)

The apostle Paul lists five different parts of the body that are the most common vehicles of sin: throats, tongues, lips, mouths, and feet. Ready for this? Four of the five body parts relate to the tongue.

Wow! That small member of our body is the biggest dispenser of our sinful nature. Our mouths can destroy lives. Adolf Hitler’s manifesto was Mein Kampf. Someone once calculated that for every word in the book, Hitler killed 320 lives. They calculated that 60 million people died in World War II, and the book has 187,000 words in it. His words killed millions of people.

Whatever is in your heart will find its way to your tongue. That’s why we need God in our hearts and sin out of our heart. A. W. Tozer said it like this: “What’s closest to your heart is what you talk about and if God is close to your heart, you’ll talk about Him.”

We need God in our hearts today.