Gen 3:22-24: Adam and Eve banished from the garden

"And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

3 chapters was all it took for man to forfeit the opportunity to have eternal bliss in relationship with God to spend a few moments in depravity with something in the flesh. 3 chapters was all it took for man to destroy the spiritual, blissful idea that God had of living throughout eternity with the object of His affection. God's voice must have shook with emotion as He asked, "what is this you have done?". And so God, filled with hurt, drove out the man and " placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life."

Have you ever had a good relationship go bad? Have you ever invested your time, your energy, your emotion, your passion, in someone who failed to reciprocate it? Have you ever loved someone with all your heart who turned you away for another? Do you feel the grief that emerges when love is not reciprocated and the mourning it produces? The sense of rejection is so painful, bleeding, glaring and degrading that it often feels as though there will never be any light at the end of the tunnel. Have you ever then asked God why? Or even blamed Him? God understands.

This is a God who had painstakingly and lovingly put together a home called earth, and a retreat called the garden of Eden, where he could set a man and woman in a controlled environment in which he might express His love. And He was rejected. The rejected God looked at Adam and Eve, and out of the depths of anger and overwhelming pain that is only known by a rejected lover, God said, "Get out!" You only ever get that angry and hurt when you have loved that much.

And all that remains are memories of a lost opportunity.
- the fellowship
- the intimacy
- the Garden of Eden and the provision
- the delight and intimacy of love
- the praises and worship that should have erupted from the human heart

So no matter how much hurt, how much pain, how much rejection you've gone through, it's ok. Because God's been there for us, because of us, before. And in spite of everything, He's managed to turn around what seemed like a hopeless downward spiral, arrested it, and given us a clean slate to move forward, free from the chains of the past, free from regrets and missed opportunities. He's set us free.

Happy Easter!

Romans 2: The Jews, just like the Gentiles, are shown to be under sin

• v1-3: The Jews were in general proud that they were God's chosen people, and hence looked with contempt upon the Gentiles, even though they were just as sacrilegious. Hence if the Gentiles, who only had God's creation and their own consciences to guide them, were inexcusable (Rom 1:20), how much less excuse would the Jews have, who had the law and the revealed will of God?
• v2: God's justice is based on truth, according to the heart and not the outward appearance.
  
• v4: "Do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?" - God's grace was free, but it wasn't free. It was the most expensive thing in the world. Am I gonna be someone who will treasure the riches of God's grace and receive it with thanksgiving, or am I gonna be someone who will treat His gift with contempt? Am I going to come back to God with something in return for His kindness, or am I gonna go on living life my own way, on my own terms and continue to break His heart? How much does God's kindness mean to me, and when I live out my life, do I show its importance to me? In every wilful sin, I am treating God's goodness with contempt. I need to realise, that God's kindness doesn't just lead to repentance, but leads ME to repentance. I need to thank God, that I'm not dragged or driven like a beast to repentance, but I am led, like a sheep led by a good shepherd.
• v5-6: this is the warning - that a hard and unpenitent heart is storing up for itself the wrath of God, for God is also a God of justice. God is angry with sinners each and every day (Ps 7:11), but He will not judge before the time (Ps 50:6), when the revelation of the righteous judgement of God will prevail (Rev 6:17)
• v7: It is ok to seek honour, glory and eternal life. We weren't meant to just live average lives. We were created to live lives of significance, of honour, of glory. But what concerns God is the methods we use to seek those things. By persistence in doing good, we seek honour and glory in His name and for His sake, because we are aligning ourselves for the right purposes: seeking glory and honour that is immortal.
• v8-9: the Spirit of God strives with sinners (Gen 6:3)
• v11: Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level before God. (Acts 10:34).
• v12-16: God will eventually come to judge, and the common denominator is man's obedience to one of three laws that God has revealed:
  1) the light of nature: God is a just and fair God; hence He will not judge the Gentiles for the transgression of the law they never had. Rather, those who sinned apart from the law will perish apart from the law. The Gentiles had their conscience, no law of Moses nor any supernatural revelation.
  2) the light of the law: this is what the Jews would be judged by. The Jews prided themselves in having the law, but Paul reminds us in v13, that having and hearing the Word does not justify, but only a do-er of the Word will be justified. (James 1:22)
  3) the light of the gospel (v16)
• v17-19: The Jews were a special people, separated and distinguished from all others by their having the written law and the special presence of God among them; as a result, many of them were arrogant and proud. Yet, as Rev 2:9 puts it, many of the synagogue of Satan will say that they are Jews, as they boast of their heritage and privileges as though these are sufficient in themselves to attain the kingdom of God.
• v20: Christians are a guide for the blind, light for those in the dark, instructor of the foolish, teacher of infants, and blessed with knowledge and truth. Paul is speaking against those well versed in religion and theology, yet a stranger to godliness and purity i.e. hypocrisy. The Jews 'approved' and were convinced that the Gentiles had to go to them for instruction and guidance, but it was this pride and self deference in heaping up titles of honour upon themselves that was unacceptable to God.
• v21-22: The Jews sinned against their knowledge and against what they preached. It was the hypocrisy of the Pharisees that they did not do as they taught (Matt 23:3). They pulled down with their lives (i.e. by their example) what they attempted to build up with their preaching (i.e. their words). Stealing, adultery and robbing God (?in tithes and offerings cf Mal 3)
• v23-24: breaking the law = dishonouring God. The Jews treated God and His law as an honour/title to them which they boasted of, but they were a dishonour to God in their daily lives.
• v25: cf Gal 5:1-2 - "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. ² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all." Circumcision is of value if one observed the law i.e. obedient Jews would not lose the reward of their obedience. God did not give the law nor appoint circumcision in vain, before the ceremonial law was abolished and fulfilled in Christ. Circumcision however, would be made uncircumcision (i.e. be no more justified than the unjustified Gentiles), if they broke the law. Being uncircumcised = being unclean (Isa 52:1) and out of the covenant (Eph 2:11-12)
• v26-27: The uncircumcised Gentiles stand upon the same level with the Jews if they "keep the law's requirements" and "obeys the law". For example, Cornelius was a Gentile, yet being a devout man and one that feared God with all his house (Acts 10) he was accepted. Circumcision was commanded to the Jews, but it was never a necessary condition of justification and salvation.
• v27-28: True circumcision is not outward in the flesh, but also of the heart. We are not to place our trust in the observance of rituals and traditions as though they are sufficient to bring us to heaven. It is the heart that God looks at - "The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live" (Deu 30:6)
  

Romans 1: the doctrine of justification by faith

Author: Paul
Time: ~AD56

• v1: Paul called addressed himself as "a servant...called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God". Just as Ps Jesse preached at Ignite that leadership is a place of serving others, Paul dedicated his life to serving the needs of the world about him, and as a result, God raised him to a place of glory. He was called (Acts 9:15) into his purpose by Christ, and in this lay his authority and anointing, unlike the false apostles. Paul's life was set apart for God's purposes, unlike the Pharisees, who set themselves apart through the laws.
• v2: Christianity is not a new upstart religion - God is the same yesterday, today and forever, and traces its beginnings to the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament.
• v3-4: all Scripture points to Christ, the Son of God
• v5: We have received grace and favour to be apostles. The apostles led a life of toil, difficulty and ultimately martyred, yet Paul considered it an honour to serve God and have an opportunity to display obedience to the faith he professed. We didn't receive grace and apostleship to be saved and then do nothing, but out of that grace and the faith with which we receive that grace, we are called to obedience. Hence the result of faith is an obedience to God's law.
• v6: It is not only Jews who need to obey God's commands, but the Gentiles too, are called to belong to Jesus Christ, because we all received a common salvation.
• v7a: All Christians are loved by God, and called to be saints i.e. called to salvation through sanctification.
• v7b: "Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ" is one of the apostolical benedictions said by the priest in every Catholic Mass.
• v8-10: When's the last time you thanked God for your friends, for the people He placed into your life? And when's the last time you spent time praying for them? Being a Christian isn't just about ourselves - it's being concerned by the people around us.
  
• v11-12: When a leader meets with the people under him, he imparts into them something, but at the same time he himself is edified. They are thus both sharpened, as iron sharpens iron.
• v16: This is the start of Paul's thesis regarding justification. The gospel message is of a man hung upon a cross to die a criminal's death; yet Paul is not ashamed to own it. Within the gospel message is the power of God's Word, living, active, profitable, and the reason why we are saved. Without the power of God, the gospel is a dead letter, and the revelation of the gospel is the revelation of the arm of the Lord (Isa 53:1) as power went along with the words of Jesus to heal the sick. Yet for all its power, it only applies to those who believe. Faith unlocks the power of the gospel salvation; it is hidden to the unbeliever.
• v17: Our iniquity has left us in need of a Saviour and a method of justification. It is hence the gospel that makes known a righteousness whereby we can stand before God. This righteousness is from God, not from man; it's not about what we do or don't do, but about what He did to make us right. Faith is all encompassing - from the faithfulness of God's revelation to our faith in receiving salvation, to the working out our salvation in trembling and fear. Faith saves, faith justifies, and faith maintains us.
• v18: God is not only a God of love, but also a God of justice and wrath. Paul does not say that God's wrath will be revealed at the time of judgement, but that the wrath of God is being revealed now i.e. it is already a present reality.
• v19-20: Paul argues that even though non-believers may not have a knowledge of God's law, God did not leave Himself without a witness (Acts 14:17), for He has revealed Himself through creation. (Ps 19:1 - The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands) "what has been made" is too perfect, too ordered to have occurred by fhance; and hence there must have been an eternal intelligent being who called all creation into existence.
• v21-23: they failed to honour and thank God. As a result of their suppression of the truth and of goodness, their foolishness and wickedness clouded and darkened their minds. They professed to be wise, but became fools. Hence "in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe" (1 Co 1:21)
• v24: God "gave them over" does not in any way imply that God actively caused man to fall into sexual impurity and sin. Rather, it means that God has given up all people to their disobedience in an expression of His permissive will - He neither forces people's obedience nor determines their disobedience, but allows us to sink into the consequences of our own disobedience. By permitting man to become absorbed in its sinfulness, God has allowed man to sink and become trapped in their own disobedience. It is from this bondage of sin that God by His grace brings liberation.
• v24, 26, 28: Because man failed to glorfy God nor give thanks to Him, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity. Because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, God gave them over to shameful lusts and received the due penalty for their perversion. Because they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, filled with wickedness, evil, greed, envy, gossip, arrogance, disobedience, faithlessness, heartlessness and ruthlessness.
• v28: Why do people think it not worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God? Is it because a knowledge of God necessitates an obedience to His will, a mastering of our own worldly desires, because it contradicts our own lusts?
• v32: Paul speaks about the intentional nature of sinners - that they knew the law, knew the penalty, and yet hardened their hearts and took pleasure in evil. If that is not all, they not only commit sin, but defend and justify it, and encourage others to do the same.
• In light of all these charges against the Gentiles, Paul lays it open for the reader to see for themselves whether the Gentile world, lying under so much guilt and corruption, can we justified before God by any works of their own.