If we have died to sin, how can we live in it? But, we're not under law, we're under grace. So... is the law sin? In Romans 7 Paul answers just as emphatically as he had in Romans 6, by no means! What good, then, is the law?
Grace covers sin, and I've plenty of that, so is that it? Just when you thought it couldn't get any bigger or more profound Paul brings the grace of the gospel to bear on our every day lives. The grace that saves is the grace that makes us new. How? Because by grace we have been saved AND united with Christ. Therefore not only is my sin covered, but it's power has been broken as well.
As Paul continues to unpack the good news of justification by faith in Jesus he wants to make something clear: what we have in the gospel is a sure thing. Far from some fragile truce, the gospel of justification by faith reveals to us a love that will not let us go.
There is nothing perhaps harder to wrap our minds and words around than faith. What is it? How do I do it? Is it important? Paul says the keys to understanding this glorious good news of being made right with God by a righteousness apart from the law and works is that it comes through faith. So, yes! It's pretty important!
Romans 3:9-31 - Paul arrives at the big news to which he's been building and from which the rest of the letter will flow. We need righteousness to be right with God. What if that righteousness was from God? That kind of news would change everything.
We are blessed to welcome to RUF this week Rev. Gary Leibovich, the senior pastor of Strong Tower Fellowship (PCA) Macon, GA.
Romans 2 - As quickly as he Paul spoke of the judgment of God against the irreligious, he turns and says the religious are no different. How can this be? How can the religious deserve judgment just like the irreligious? Again, it all boils down to a righteousness(in this case "self" righteousness) that falls short.
Romans 1:18-32. Paul opened his letter by telling us he has really good news, but he immediately follows that up with the wrath of God. What are we to make of this often taboo subject? How does it square with the supposed good news?
In the opening verse of his well known letter to the church at Rome Paul tells us that he has Big News that he's Not Ashamed of about what it means to be Right with God.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
Follow Sammy on Twitter @sammyrhodes and look out for his new book, "This is Awkward," hitting shelves March 1, 2016.
All corners of our world and culture, religious and not, are trying to define womanhood by how you look and what you do. In Proverbs 31 we find a rather remarkable picture. The culmination of wisdom, according to the author, is finding the excellent woman. "An excellent woman, who can find?"
Our hope and prayer is that Mercer students would find RUF a safe place for the convinced and unconvinced to process the truth claims of Christianity.
While the conclusion of the David narrative in the book of Samuel seems to show David lacking, it actually serves to show us once again his greatness as he points us to the mercy of God.
II Samuel 23 records the names and feats of David's mighty men. As we focus in on one particular story which took place early in David's reign, we begin to see what it means to be mighty in God's eyes.
The most heartbreaking episode in the life of David, without a doubt, is the rise and fall of his son Absalom. We look at Psalm 63 as we trace the story that spans 2 Samuel 13-19.
What do you expect the chapter after Bathsheba to contain? An answer to David's grievous sin, yes, but perhaps not the one you would expect.
In one of the most unsettling chapters in the whole Bible, King David, the man after God's own heart, flies headlong after his own desires and pleasures and into sin. What do we do with a villainous king?
Rev. Josh Garrett steps in and leads us through 2 Samuel 9, where David shows us what it is like to show the love that you have been shown, to give what you've been given, to see the world and people as God sees them.
2 Samuel 7 is one of the most important passages of the entire Old Testament as God covenants with David that his throne will be forever.
One of David's top priorities in his new kingdom was to bring the ark of the Lord back to Jerusalem. Surely the Lord would bless this priority, but the turn of events in bringing it back left David and us confused. How can we be close to a holy God?
As I Samuel's account of David's rise to the throne draws to a close, we see how the true king is found in the wilderness.
Jesse McCallister takes into the cave at Engedi in I Samuel 24 where David is handed King Saul on a silver platter.
No sooner had David stepped off the battlefield victorious did he learn a vital truth. If he was going to be God's anointed one, he was going to need friends, and God provided one in a beautiful way.
I Samuel 17 - One of the most well known stories of the Bible swells with significance at the front end of David's rise to the throne. Once again the theme of "things are not as they seem" arises to point us to the true king, the man after God's own heart.
We encounter King David where God introduces him to the story and to us in history in I Samuel 16. Israel's first king, Saul, has failed, but God has provided for himself a king for his people. How does a king who lived 3000 years ago have anything to do with us?
This final installment failed to record at RUF large group, but here it is recorded as it was preached again at North Macon Presbyterian Church on Sunday, January 4, 2015.
The gospels and Jesus himself make one thing very clear: he came to die. In Luke 23 we find all the details Luke wants us to know concerning the darkest day in all of history.
