Since Israel came back into existence as a nation in 1948, the church has generally looked to Israel as a sign of the end times. The troubles of Israel remind us that Jesus is coming, and it is gratifying to hear the reports of the growing number of messianic congregations in Israel and around the world. This surely signals God at work in a new way. (The school that I attended, The King’s University, has a department training Messianic pastors and leaders!)

Romans 9 begins Paul’s efforts to help his readers understand how to think about Israel. As we read chapters 9-11 we must remember that they are primarily about how God is using Israel to complete His plan and at the same time knowing the new people of the Messiah includes both Jews and Gentiles on the basis of faith in Jesus.

Have you been intrigued by what Paul says about the Spirit in the life of a believer? If the Law is powerless to produce spiritual life, if believers are in reality people of the Spirit, if the Spirit is preparing us for a co-stewardship of the creation, then learning to recognize and obey the promptings of the Spirit is key to living in the fullness of what God is doing.

If that is stirring in your soul, then it’s time to take The Next Step! Four weeks of giving yourself over to a tune-up, or a revolution. The Next Step starts again Tuesday, April 2. Sign up today!

Chapter 7 is about the place of the Law, not the experience of Christian life. The experience described is of the person who looks to the Law to produce holiness. The Law (or any other set of rules) has no power to do that, just like a referee has no power to make the players better.

Paul starts out that whole discussion by saying that we died to the Law through the body of Christ so that we might be joined to Jesus. It is the joining to Jesus that produces spiritual life. (7:4) Paul explains in chapter 8 how that happens.

The problem with trying to live under the Law is the condemnation: you never can measure up. Paul declares that there is no condemnation for those in Christ. N. T Wright summarizes the first 11 verses this way: “There is no condemnation because the spirit-law has set you free from the sin-law, because God has acted in his son and his spirit to condemn sin and provide life, because there are two types of human beings and you are the spirit type, because these two types are heading, respectively, for death and life.” Verse 11a declares, “However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the spirit dwells in you.”

Our joining to Christ means that we are people of the Spirit, not of the flesh! The Spirit dwells in us and gives us the life that the Law could not.

We live under the righteous and blessed rule of the One who died for us and rose from the dead breaking the death grip of sin. Paul puts it this way in Romans 7:6—“…we serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

That raises a question: What is the purpose of the Law in God’s economy? Is the Law sin? That is, can the Law be held accountable for sin in the world?

His answer is an unequivocal, “No!” Paul’s argument is that the Law reveals sin, it provokes sin, and it condemns sin, but the law itself is good and holy. No, the Law is not the culprit.

When someone commits a crime and is convicted he cannot blame the law that convicted him! He has only himself to blame. Did the Law played any role in the reign of death? Paul’s answer? “May it never be!”

Remember that the topic is the role of the Law in sin and death. The Law makes sin appear for what it really is. But even though the Law has been exonerated from causing sin, it has also been shown to be impotent in regard to holiness. It is holy itself, but cannot be the occasion for holiness for people.

So the Law does not cause sin, but also does not have the where-withal to assist in holiness either. That puts someone trusting in the Law to produce her right standing before God in a tough spot. Following the Law cannot get it done.

What’s Paul’s answer? Thank God for Jesus!

Jesus sets the pristine example for all to emulate. Jesus had no need to repent because He committed no sin. There-fore, why was it important for Jesus to be baptized?

Jesus convinced John the Baptist to follow His divine instructions, so that we’d embrace His holy example – to be baptized. As Christ’s servants, we obey and serve our King (Jesus). We’re His residents in His kingdom living beneath His rule and reign. Got it? If not, get it!

With repentant hearts, we give our lives to Jesus. With obedient hearts, we get baptized. Symbolically, water baptism is so much more than a splash in a pool or river. It is our public announcement to the world that we do what Jesus says. We follow His godly example.

We’ve been buried as He has been, and likewise because Jesus got up from the grave, we too shall have victory over death, over sin, and over the old man/woman. We are dead to sin, alive to God. As we experience Christ’s likeness, we’ll experience newness as well. (II Corinthians 5:17).

-by Pastor Anthony Artis

Recently in Argentina a group of sex traffickers who had kidnapped Marita Veron and forced her into prostitution were set free despite testimony from other women who had suffered the same fate and knew her story.

Judges blamed the lack of physical evidence since Marita has not been found. Argentina was in an uproar over what they saw as judicial corruption ignoring sworn testimony from multiple sources.

The story of Israel has some of the same overtones. God chose Abraham and his descendants to represent Him to the rest of the world. God was going to use Israel to put the world right again. But things went horribly awry. Israel became more stained by sin and corruption than the people they were meant to reach.

By the time of Habakkuk, he was moved to cry out, “Therefore the law is ignored, and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.” (Hab 1:4)

Was God’s plan stymied? Habakkuk seemed to think so. He was appalled at God’s answer: raising up the Babylonians to take Judah into captivity. Yet in the middle of that confusion, God’s overruling plan shines through: the righteous shall live by his faith!

The world may have turned its back on God, and Israel may have failed to follow His ways, but God always knew what he was going to do: deal with sin and death Himself in the person of Jesus.

The faithfulness of Jesus has set us free!

-by Pastor Bruce Garner

Words like redemption, sacrifice, pleading the blood, I will pray for you, atonement, and many others.

These words have very little meaning outside the church, but have great significance to us in God’s family.

Atonement is such a word, to the believer its life but to the unsaved it’s the gateway into the presence of God. The knowledge that the indictment that was rightfully against mankind….us, has been fully satisfied by the shed blood of Jesus creates a level playing field for all to come to God without fear of judgment.

It is written in Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, in other words, there is no one who is worthy, no one who has earned the right to come to God. It is because of the atoning work of the shed blood of Jesus that allows us to enter in and rejoice in the mercy of God.

Salvation has come to the whole world and salvation has come to you today if you just believe. It does not matter what has happened in the past, Jesus has leveled the playing field by giving His life, all you have to do is repent, believe and follow.

-by Pastor Edward Norton

Our professor asked, so what is the gospel? We answered, “Good news!” What is the good news then? “It is the good news about Jesus!” we answered.

What is the good news about Jesus? It felt a little like 2nd grade now.

We said, “The good news about Jesus is that He died for our sins so that we can be forgiven and receive eternal life.”

He bore down a little, “Why did Jesus call it the good news of the kingdom then?”

Now no one answered, and started to think. Finally, after much discussion, we came up with some-thing like this: “The good news of the kingdom is that Jesus is the King who has been enthroned at God’s right hand who is coming as the Judge of all the living and the dead, and is the One who loves the world and gave up his life on the cross so that we could be set free from the power of sin and death.”

That’s why Paul could say that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes! The best part is next in verse 17.

In the good news, the right action of God to make sinners righteous is revealed.

God did not ignore sin and evil. He destroyed their power over mankind at the cross. You and I can hold up our heads and celebrate!

No one in heaven, earth, or hell can ever say that God has been unfair. What he did to make us right was right by all.

-by Pastor Bruce Garner

(Matt. 9:36) So Jesus called the twelve, gave them authority to cast out demons and to heal, and sent them out. Later He expanded that authority to 70 disciples. The results were incredible and Jesus Himself “rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 9:21)

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, (1 John 3:8) and he commissioned them and us to be a part of that. It is no secret that hell has gained a foothold on earth. If you have not personally experienced the shattering effects of the sin and evil that is part of human society, then a glimpse of the news will show it.

World magazine quotes Brian Harrington of Newtown, Connecticut say-ing, “The whole community feels violated. We feel an unleashing of supernatural evil.” How do we respond? First we care for and pray for those hurt by evil. But next by recognizing that God has given us authority to deal with the hell that tries to invade and inhabit our corner of life.

Has evil gained a foothold in us? Jesus came to destroy that influence and has given us the authority to confront it and deal with it! Has evil crept in our circle of influence? God has given us authority in prayer to recognize and break the power of the enemy’s deceptions. When we do that, “All hell breaks loose!”

- by Pastor Bruce Garner