Scattered thoughts on Romans 5

When humans express their love for another human -- man seeking woman to be his wife, parent to child, redneck to Sid, his hunting dog, invariably in that expression of affection a positive quality is expressed about the object of one's love. For example: "I love your blue eye, not to mention the brown one, too." "Your smile makes my day." "Your sweet attitude keeps me coming back for more." "Whenever you retrieve a duck my heart goes pitter patter."

In Romans 5:5 we are told that the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (NASB). Below are a few observations from Romans 5 as to what that looks like:

Verse 6 - While we were in a state of helplessness evidenced in being ungodly Christ died for us.
Verses 7,8 - Christ did not die a hero's death saving someone who was righteous or good but rather in love for us God slaughtered His own Son in the place of sinners (See also Romans 8:32; Is. 53).
Verse 9 - The act of killing His own Son was an act of substitution -- Christ was punished in our place --thus satisfying the righteousness of God and saving us from the wrath of God.
Verse 10 - Enemies of God -- that is us -- were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.
Verse 11 - Exultation in God is through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Evidence of the Holy Spirit in one's life: The Spirit glorifies and bears witness of Christ (see John 15:26; 16:14). Because He is the Holy Spirit of God, He causes us to see ourselves apart from Christ as separated from God: helpless, sinners, ungodly, enemies of God. He reminds us when we are wandering that we have been bought with a price, that we are not our own.

Evidence we have or are coming to a proper understanding of salvation: We exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ (see also I Peter 3:18). To exult in God is to have a higher estimation of God. Salvation through Jesus Christ causes a higher view of God, a delight in God not our specialness or uniqueness. We see the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus through the gospel (2 Cor. 4).

Boasting in the Lord

Pridebreaking knowledge

Autistic boy's mom re grace: When I scraped my son's feces off the wall, God said, "Your sin was more repulsive and I cleaned you." - Noel Piper on Twitter

Merit pay

From www.desiringgod.org

My Happy Confession of Having No Merit
August 17, 2009 By: John Piper Category: Commentary

This is my confession:

I was born into a believing family through no merit of my own at all.

I was given a mind to think and a heart to feel through no merit of my own at all.

I was brought into the hearing of the gospel through no merit of my own at all.

My rebellion was subdued, my hardness removed, my blindness overcome, and my deadness awakened through no merit of my own at all.

Thus I became a believer in Christ through no merit of my own at all.

And so I am an heir of God with Christ through no merit of my own at all.

Now when I put forward effort to please the Lord who bought me, this is to me no merit at all, because
...it is not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)
...God is working in me that which is pleasing in his sight. (Hebrews 13:21)
...he fulfills every resolve for good by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

And therefore there is no ground for boasting in myself, but only in God’s mighty grace.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:31)

Singing to praise, singing toward heresy

I am convinced that congregations learn more theology (good and bad) from the songs they sing than from the sermons they hear. Many sermons are doctrinally sound and contain a fair amount of biblical information, but they lack that necessary emotional content that gets ahold of the listener's heart. Music, however, reaches the mind and the heart at the same time. It has power to touch and move the emotions, and for that reason can become a wonderful tool in the hands of the Spirit or a terrible weapon in the hands of the Adversary. Naive congregations can sing their way into heresy before they realize what is going on.
- Warren Wiersbe, Real Worship, p. 137