Explore every episode of the podcast Fill The Lamp

“So God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them.”  God image is Spirit!  But listen, in Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being”.  So here we have it. Mankind has two ways to go. Live in the “Flesh” and die in the “Flesh” or be transformed back into the “Spirit

." When you believe in Jesus, not only do you leave the darkness and enter the light; you actually join the family of the light—you become children of the light. Paul said, "Once you were darkness itself, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8).

“These words are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name,” he meant that he was writing to awaken faith in unbelievers and sustain faith in believers — and in that way lead both to eternal life. 

These comrades are spread over several churches in Rome.  In verse 1, Paul shares his appreciation, “I commend to you Phoebe our sister, who is a servant of the Church in Cenchrea”.  3 Give my best to Prisca and Aquila; they are not only my colleagues in my profession of tent making, but more importantly they are my fellow servants of Jesus our Lord. 4 They put their lives on the line to keep me safe. Not only do I owe them my thanks, so do all the churches of the non-Jews. 

20 My ambition has always been to preach the Good News where the name of Christ has never been heard, rather than where a church has already been started by someone else. 21 I have been following the plan spoken of in the Scriptures, where Isaiah says that those who have never heard the name of Christ before will see and understand

Remember, each of us will stand personally before the Judgment Seat of God. 11 For it is written, “As I live,” says the Lord, “every knee shall bow to me and every tongue confess to God.” 12 Yes, each of us will give an account of himself to God.

So, why does Paul call for love as a way to fulfill the law instead of directing our focus directly to the law? Well, the short answer has to be, because Paul wants Christ to be glorified as our sin-bearer and our righteousness-provider and our love-enabler through faith alone. Therefore, owe no one anything except to love them. And to that conclusion make Christ your everything.

Be all in with your love for people. But Be all in with your hatred of evil.Nothing phony. Nothing half-hearted. Nothing ho-hum about love or hate. Love people zealously. Hate evil zealously.

We do not live as before, wrapping ourselves in the world and its bankrupt values. We live in constant renewal and transformation of our minds.

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.” We can’t pay him back because he already owns all we have to give him — including all our efforts.

For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

The burden of Paul in Romans 11 is the salvation of Israel. Not only "some of them," as it says in verse 14, but in the end the whole people. "A partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. vs 26 And in this way all Israel will be saved" 

God's purpose in the trespass of Israel is salvation for the Gentiles. And his purpose for the salvation of the Gentiles is to make Israel jealous, so that she (Israel) awakens to the greatness of Christ and embraces her Messiah. And then Paul adds, the purpose of the salvation of all Israel "their full inclusion" is something even greater. Something glorious follows the full number of the Gentiles and the full number of Israel. For if Israel's rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? 

"God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew" (Romans 11:2). My friends, God's word has not fallen short. And if you will trust him and bank on his Son Jesus Christ, all the promises of God for living and dying will be yours and will be unquestionable. 

And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?  And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent?

That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" He is our righteousness. He is our victory. He has circumcised our hearts. And he is working our sanctification.

 You see, God’s purpose for the law reaches its climax when the Messiah arrives; now all who trust in Him can have their lives made right with God.  Jesus Christ is the Fulfillment of the Law! 

Isa 28:16 “Look what I am going to do in Zion.
I’ll put in place a stone that makes them stumble, a rock that trips them up, but those who trust in it will not be disgraced” 

In his absolute, glorious freedom — “I’ll have mercy on whom I have mercy; I’ll be gracious to whom I’ll be gracious” — he makes known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy. That’s verse 23, and that’s the ultimate goal of the universe. Those vessels of mercy are prepared beforehand by God for glory.

But in this very moment, the vessels of mercy are everyone and anyone who calls on the name of the Lord.

The matter gave great pain to Abraham—after all, Ishmael was his son. But God spoke to Abraham, “Don’t feel badly about the boy Ishmael or about Hagar your maid servant. Do whatever Sarah tells you. Your descendants will come through Isaac. Regarding your maid’s son, be assured that I’ll also develop a great nation from him—he’s your son, too.”  Genesis 21:12

And when he then says that these “children of God” are “children of promise,” he means that they have their spiritual position not because of their physical connections, but because of God’s effective promise. The promise produced the position.

Listen to the prophet Isaiah 28:16. Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion, a tested stone, A precious cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. The one who believes in it will not be disturbed.

As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

God causes “everything” to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them

For we know that all creation groans in unison with birthing pains up until now.  The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs.

For if your life is just about satisfying the impulses of your sinful nature, then prepare to die. But, if you have invited the Spirit to destroy these selfish desires, you will experience life. 

Rom 8:11 "But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you"

Therefore, since the mindset of the Spirit is the fruit and shape of the Spirit's life, the way God designed for us to walk and live is to have a spiritual mindset, not a fleshly one. From hostility to life to a spiritual mindset. And because we have this spiritual mindset, we walk that way – we live that way.We "do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit."

The "law of sin and death" in verse 2 is the power and authority of sin which CONTROLS and rules in a life where God does not have the upper hand but where flesh is dominant. 

my new life tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I’m in! Who will free me from my slavery to this deadly lower nature? Thank God! It has been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free.

Sin is making promises to you that it cannot keep, and you are trusting in these promises. So, what is the remedy? Die to the Law and live to God through the crucified and risen Christ. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the remedy

If you are in Christ, justified, and married to your Savior, Jesus, you bear fruit for God. That means that new desires and attitudes and choices and actions grow like fruit from this all-satisfying relationship between you and your living "husband," Jesus Christ.

“Wages of Sin is Death…. It’s like the unbelieving sinner gets paid for his or her disbelief in Christ. It’s called eternal Death.  Like one man put it, “As a sense of equivalence is involved here. Sinners get what they have earned. Death is no random sentence, but the inevitable consequence of their sin.

Beloved, we have been born into this Enslavement of Sin, because of Adam’s disobedience, and We MUST Change to flee from its Bondage!!  Your creator has made a way and it’s the only WAY of escape. But there is the requirement of falling in LOVE with the One who payed the bail price to set you FREE.

1Corinth 6:19-20 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.

 For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 

Although the Mosaic law is not flawed its presence caused mankind’s sin to increase.  Thus, it made men more aware of their own sinfulness an inability to keep God’s perfect standard and it served as a tutor, you might say, to drive them to Christ.  

By Adam’s sin many are made sinners: judgment is coming to condemnation upon all those that by Adam’s disobedience were made sinners.   There is judgment given and recorded against us in the court of heaven; and, if the judgment be not reversed, we are likely to sink under it to eternity. 

God the Father himself has worked in the past decisively and will work in the future unfailingly to rescue us from his wrath.

So, you were guilty sinners, you were weak and helpless, and you were ungodly and deserving of the just and holy wrath of God. And in spite of all that, he loved you and gave his Son to die that you might live.

"Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong."  2 Corinth 12:9

God wants you to take this very personally. He wants you to read and hear and know that you are being addressed  very personally. 

Why is faith so essential? He answers, it's because, it harmonizes with grace. And why is that important? Because God's grace is what gives the guarantee.

We Gentiles who believe on Jesus the Messiah are fellow heirs with Abraham and with him will inherit the world. Jews and Gentiles together, who believe in Christ, are heirs of the world. 

 It's because the gospel is the good news that our sins are laid on Christ and his righteousness is laid on us. The Great Exchange. The great imputation of our sin to Christ and God's righteousness to us – called justification

Faith will begin to overcome our ungodliness. But in the beginning of the Christian life - where justification happens - we are all ungodly. 

Gal 5:4  “You, and anyone else who seeks to be on the right side of God through the law, have effectively been cut off from the Anointed, circumcised from grace, and cast off from the favor of God.

Mankind has the understanding that he knows what is best and his progress of science and abilities to provide good things for advancement are because he (man) is determined to be the way-maker. 

18 “They have no fear of God at all.” 19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God. 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.