Romans 7:1-6

Relax, Read and Reflect
Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.
1Do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to men who know the law—that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? 2For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. 3So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
4So, 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. 5For when we were controlled by the sinful nature,[a] the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. 6But 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.
Footnotes:
Romans 7:5 Or the flesh; also in verse 25

Okay! This is a little deep. Paul is using marriage to illustrate our relationship with the law. When we marry, we are obligated-By law- to our spouse, until death. Here is the switch. We as sinful humans are tied to the law until death. The death Paul is referring to is Christ’s death. By dying with Christ and being reborn in him, we are no longer obligated to sin.
Paul never married, so what does he know about marriage? He knows the law! Although Paul does not bring this out in his letter, there is something else we can take from these verses. You can be in a marriage and follow the law exactly, and the marriage can be a total failure. Marriage takes work, faith and trust. Therefore; How can we expect to be saved by God if all we do is keep His law? If all we do is attend church, tithe, and maybe put a fish on the back of our car, can we still get to heaven? No, it takes work, faith and trust.
Prayer- Lord, how wonderful it is that we are reborn through You and Your Son. We are now bound only to You! Help us overcome our sinful nature and keep our faith in You. Go-Fight- Win. Amen.

Romans 6:15-23

Relax, Read and Reflect
Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.
Slaves to Righteousness
15What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
19I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord.
Footnotes:
Romans 6:23 Or through
Paul continues to address rationalization. If we are under grace instead of the law- can’t we sin? God would still love us. "By no Means!" We are still bound to serve and follow rules. The difference becomes are you a servant to the law or to God? When we accept Jesus as our savior, we are no longer slaves to sin and to the law. We become slave to good and righteousness.
This passage has an extremely powerful point. As humans, we are all slaves,(servants,) to something. We are either following sin, or we follow God. There is no middle ground! Re- read vs. 23. What master do you follow?
Prayer- Lord, Help us follow You. We want to be your servants. We want to accept your gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus or Lord. Go-Fight -Win. Amen

Romans 6:1-14

Relax, Read and Reflect
Prayer- Lord, Open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.
Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We 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.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.
Footnotes:
Romans 6:6 Or be rendered powerless
We are about to study the section of Paul’s Letter to the Romans that deals with sanctification. Sanctification is the change God makes in our lives as we grow in faith.
Since God likes to forgive, why don’t we sin more often to give God more opportunity to forgive? Paul says that is just taking advantage of God and God’s mercy. The availability of God’s mercy is not an excuse for careless living and moral laxness. When we are baptized, our sins are taken away, they die with Christ. As our old ways die with Christ, our knew faith needs to live in Christ. That is what it means to be saved. We need to never fear death, because we have found peace and assurance that we will always live. Not on earth, but in Heaven.
This is why we should increase our study, Godly works and worship. When we no longer fear death, we enjoy life. The more we grow, the more we enjoy. We are dead to sin- but alive through Christ!
Prayer- Lord, give us the strength to grow. Remove from us all external distractions that can sidetrack us from our main goal- a life with and through You. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.

Romans 5:12-21

Relax, Read and Reflect.
Prayer- Lord, open our hearts and open our minds and help us learn. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.
Death Through Adam, Life Through Christ
12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— 13for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. 14Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
15But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! 16Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man's sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. 17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
20The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
What does Adam’s sin have to do with us? Why should we be constantly judged by God for what Adam did a long time ago? These would be fair questions-if we did not sin ourselves. Adam did, we are part of Adams linage, and we still sin.
Paul does not bring this up to put man down. He reminds us how weak we can be. Man sinned for hundreds of years, so God gave Moses the laws. Did the sinning stop? To be fair, all of mankind did not know about the law given to Moses, only the chosen people, the Jews. Therefore; only the Jews stopped sinning- right? The law did not stop the sin, because we are all from Adam, and prone to sin.
Re-read vs. 17. Even though we sin, even though we rebel, we are still given the gifts of Gods love and grace. If we look at it logically; we do not need justice or fairness from God- we all need mercy.
Prayer- Lord, give us Your mercy. We do not deserve or earn it, but we need it still. Thank you for Your gifts, and most of all, thank you for Your Son. Go-Fight-Win. Amen.