Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

Romans 10:8-13 " But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim: 9  If you declare  with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,”  and believe  in your heart that God raised him from the dead,  you will be saved.   10  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.   11  As Scripture says, “Anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.” [ e ]   12  For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile —the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,   13  for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord  will be saved.” There are times in our lives where we need to stand up and publicly proclaim what we believe in.  If you are married, at your wedding ceremony you had to declare your love for your spouse and make a promise to be faithful until death do us part.  Today Paul talks about the

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel 9  I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,  my conscience confirms  it through the Holy Spirit—   2  I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.   3  For I could wish that I myself  were cursed  and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,  those of my own race,   4  the people of Israel.  Theirs is the adoption to sonship;  theirs the divine glory,  the covenants,  the receiving of the law,  the temple worship  and the promises.   5  Theirs are the patriarchs,  and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,  who is God over all,  forever praised!   Amen. I talk to many people who have anguish over relatives or close friends who don't have a relationship with God through Christ.  They pray for them, share Christ when they can in word and deed; but still have not seen their loved ones come to faith.  I think this is a similar sentiment Paul is expressing when he talks about the people of Israel.  This is the spiritual

Romans 8:9-11 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh  but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you.  And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ,  they do not belong to Christ.   10  But if Christ is in you,  then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life [ d ]  because of righteousness.   11  And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead  is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies  because of [ e ]  his Spirit who lives in you. As Paul moves toward application of the doctrine he has laid out in the first chapters, he focuses on the person and role of the Holy Spirit.  Before Jesus left he told his disciples, " It is good for me to go, because if I do I will send you my Holy Spirit to be with you."   John 16:7 Paul gives us a better understanding of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit lives within us.  Importantly he is the Spir

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ Romans  7  15  I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.   16  And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.   17  As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.   18  For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.   19  For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.   20  Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21  So I find this law at work:  Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.   22  For in my inner being  I delight in God’s law;   23  but I see another law at work in me, waging war  against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin  at work within me.   24  What a wretched man I am! Who will

Romans 6:11-14 11  In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin  but alive to God in Christ Jesus.   12  Therefore do not let sin reign  in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.   13  Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness,  but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.   14  For sin shall no longer be your master,  because you are not under the law,  but under grace. Have you ever beaten a habit, at least temporarily?  You felt so good being free from it.  But then for whatever reason you went back to it.  This happens all the time, and we might call it insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.  We have developed a good habit which makes us happy, only to return to a bad habit that makes us miserable.  Well guess what? There is a name for this.  It is called our sinful nature.  And be

Peace and Hope 5  Therefore, since we have been justified  through faith,  we [ a ]  have peace  with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   2  through whom we have gained access  by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we [ b ] boast in the hope  of the glory of God.   3  Not only so, but we [ c ]  also glory in our sufferings,  because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   4  perseverance, character; and character, hope.   5  And hope  does not put us to shame, because God’s love  has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,  who has been given to us. Paul continues to teach us the benefits we have by being justified by Jesus' death for us.  Most importantly we have peace with God.  Until we were justified by grace, we feared God and feared punishment.  We didn't want to approach God, because we felt unworthy and indeed we were.  But now because of God's grace in Christ, we have peace with God, which is no small thing.  Most peopl

13  It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise  that he would be heir of the world,  but through the righteousness that comes by faith.   14  For if those who depend on the law are heirs, faith means nothing and the promise is worthless,   15  because the law brings wrath.  And where there is no law there is no transgression. 16  Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace  and may be guaranteed  to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all. Paul continues to teach the Romans on the nature of faith and how we are credited with righteousness not because of what he have done, but because of what God has done for us.  If we could be righteous through works, God would owe us a debt of righteousness and it would not be a gift.  But as we saw yesterday, we cannot become righteous by obeying the law, because we all fall short of keeping it

19  Now we know that whatever the law says,  it says to those who are under the law,  so that every mouth may be silenced  and the whole world held accountable to God.   20  Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law;  rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. Righteousness Through Faith 21  But now apart from the law the righteousness of God  has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.   22  This righteousness  is given through faith  in [ h ]  Jesus Christ  to all who believe.  There is no difference between Jew and Gentile,   23  for all have sinned  and fall short of the glory of God,   24  and all are justified  freely by his grace  through the redemption  that came by Christ Jesus. In chapter 3 Paul makes the important between Law and Gospel.  For Martin Luther this distinction was the key to interpreting all of scripture correctly.  Why is this important? Unless we understand the purpose of the La

God’s Righteous Judgment 2  You, therefore, have no excuse,  you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.   2  Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.   3  So when you, a mere human being, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? 4  Or do you show contempt for the riches  of his kindness,  forbearance and patience,  not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? In chapter 2 Paul builds a case that all of us fall short of God's glory.  If God's law is the final arbiter of a person's righteousness, then all people both Jews and Gentiles will need a lot of help.  So when you judge someone else, Paul says you are judging yourself.  Why?  Because there is no one without fault.  The only one who can judge is the one who is fully righteous,

20  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,  so that people are without excuse. 21  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.   22  Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools   23  and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images  made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles. 24  Therefore God gave them over  in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25  They exchanged the truth about God for a lie,  and worshiped and served created things  rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Today begins Paul's letter to the Romans.  Rome was where Paul ended up in prison at the end of the book of Acts. Paul longed to visit the