Paul addresses both Jews and Gentiles in this chapter which deals with faith. Paul starts out Romans 5 with “…therefore being justified by faith”. James, Paul and Peter all three emphasized the importance of faith. Without faith we have nothing. Faith is both a fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and a gift of the spirit (1 Corinthians 12:7-11). But I’m going to deviate from Romans here. James and Paul never disagreed on the subject of faith as some argue. James said faith without works is dead; so it is not enough to have faith according to James. Paul says the same thing but with different words. If you have faith, don’t you also have kindness, gentleness, love, peace, temperance, joy, long suffering and wisdom? And doesn’t knowledge lead to wisdom to faith? They are all inter woven and go along with one another. Won’t you demonstrate your faith through your works? Isn’t a tree known by its fruit? Back to Romans… Just as James said (rejoice when your faith is tested) Paul says the same thing in verses 3-4: “… but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope:” Bad times strengthen our faith when we persevere. When we are in the spirit we can suffer with grace and partake of the “longsuffering” fruit of the spirit. Then Paul makes a statement that is the gist of all of Christians “: …. while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” If we do not believe, and cannot accept, that Christ’s death was necessary for us to be saved, then we have nothing. Without Christ there is no Christianity. Without his death there is no final sacrifice. All mankind carries the burden of being sinful… Adam’s sin put that on us all. Do not misunderstand me. I do not believe that a new born baby has committed sin but rather as the potential and will sin if he or she grows up to make any choices for him or herself. It is inevitable. Mankind will sin – only Christ was perfect and sin free. This brings up a point that has been argued from the first century: if my baby dies will he go to heaven or hell? Without judging, I ask you this: why did Jesus rebuke his own disciples when they tried to shoo away the children? Why did Jesus say unless you become like a child you wouldn’t enter heaven? Why Jesus did promised a severe death (millstone around the neck) if you harm a child? Children are innocent and good until they learn to be otherwise. I believe this applies to the mentally disabled too. If the mind cannot chose right from wrong then they are incapable of sin. In my heart I could never believe that my loving and merciful God would condemn a baby to hell. Paul said because Admin sinned we are all sinners but because Christ died for us we can all have salvations (verse 19): “For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.”
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 13:24:17 +0000