Romans 8:22 says, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.  When man sinned, everything in creation was affected by that sin.  Genesis says the ground was cursed and man now had to earn his living by the sweat of his brow.  Mankind was assigned the task of having dominion over the world, but in sin began to corrupt everything in nature.  People today still exploit creation for their own desires.  Verse twenty three says, And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.  Paul says that even as followers of Christ, the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves.  As we live in this sinful world that only seems to get worse, we cannot help to groan at all that goes own.  We await the redemption of the body as well as the spirit, that day when we are fully restored with nothing between us and the Heavenly Father.  In verse twenty four, Paul says, For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?  We are saved by hope.  We cannot see the outcome of that hope at this present time, and if we could, we would be living by sight and not by faith.  There is nothing tangible that we can show people to convince them of the reality of Christ.  Only through faith can anyone come to Christ, and only through faith can we live victoriously in this world. As followers of Christ, we do not live in a bubble where the pain and suffering of this world cannot touch us, but we are still subjected to everything the rest of the world is subjected to, but with the knowledge that this one day will pass.  Verse twenty five says, But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.  In faith, we wait for that which we cannot see.  We do not have the ability to physically see the everlasting outcome of following Christ, but only the faith to be able to await patiently for that day when we will.  This does not release us from our responsibility to be working for Christ until that day.  We must patiently await until then.  Verse twenty six says, Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  We may feel that we need beautiful, eloquent prayers to get God's attention, but Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us, with groanings that cannot be uttered, since we don't even know what to pray for.  Public prayers often seem to be addressed more to the audience than to God and private prayers are often more what we want or need than what God wants for us.  The Holy Spirit always knows what God wants and what we need though.  This is confirmed in verse twenty seven, which states, And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  The Holy Spirit knows the will of God and makes intercession for the saints, the followers of Christ, according to that will.  This does not mean that we shouldn't pray, but that we don't have to worry about getting the words exactly right.  We simply need to pray in the Spirit of Christ.

Romans 8:10 says, And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  Paul had a lot to say about being dead in Christ.  It is more than just the symbolism of baptism.  We are literally to die to the ways of the flesh and sin and to live by the way of the Spirit of God.  If we make baptism simply some kind of right of passage into God's kingdom without accepting the truth that we are truly changed by our acceptance of Christ, it does us no good.  Though but a symbol of our acceptance of Christ, we must acknowledge what that symbolic gesture means.  We literally accept the burial of the old earthly nature, or the flesh corrupted by sin, and the resurrection to a newness of life by the Spirit of God.  In verse eleven Paul continues this thought stating, 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.  Notice that Paul did not say that if the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, lives in us that after this life is over we will be quickened, or made alive.  Paul stated than when we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit our mortal bodies are made alive.  As Paul would state of himself and we can apply to all believers, it is no longer we who live, but Christ Who lives in us.  We may hear people say that Christianity is a pie in the sky by and by, but it is not a by and by faith.  Being a follower of Christ requires a change in our very nature from the moment we accept Him.   We no longer live by the dictates of the flesh, but by the leadership of the Spirit.  Verse twelve states, Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  We owe nothing to the flesh as followers of Christ.  We no longer are imprisoned by sin, but are set free from its power.  Verse thirteen states, For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  I believe that Paul was saying there has to be a change in our nature if we accept salvation through Christ.  We now live guided by the Holy Spirit and not carnal desires.  If we do again give in to those desires, we die to the will of God.  We are still redeemed, but we are not useful at such times.  In verse fourteen Paul states, For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  When I say Paul states, we should realize that this is really the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul.  Those who do not believe in Christ see the Bible as just a collection of teachings written by many people over many centuries and of no real importance, but as followers of Christ, we must recognize it as God's Word to the world.  As such, this verse tells us that when we are led by the Spirit, which can really only happen after we accept Christ as Savior and Lord and are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, we are the children of God.  Though it is possible for earthly parents to legally disown a child, that does not mean that child is not theirs.  We can rejoice that God will not disown us once we are His, but instead seals us to Him.  Verse fifteen states, For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.  We are not in bondage to God to fear that He will suddenly reject us, but we are His children by adoption.  In adoption, in it truest form, a child is not a part of that family until they do something wrong, but they are as much a part of the family as a natural born child.  Through Christ, we are God's children forever more, and do not need to live in fear of being disowned.

Romans 8:6 says, For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  There is no way to follow the desires of the flesh, which lead to rebellion against God, without that rebellion or sin being dealt with before we can be fully restored to a right relationship with God.  If we choose these desires over the sacrifice of Christ, spiritual death awaits us.  If we choose to follow Christ, to be spiritually minded, then we find life and peace through Christ.  Verse seven states, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  Choosing our will, the will of the carnal mind, puts us at enmity with God.  Even as followers of Christ, if we allow sin, the desires of the flesh, to invade our thoughts, we are at that point once again at war with God.  We are not once again lost, as we are sealed to God by His power, but we are indeed rebelling against God's will for our lives.  Paul says that the carnal mind cannot be subjected to the law of God.  As long as we believe that we can follow our earthly desires, we cannot follow Christ as we should.  This definitely applies to those who refuse to even acknowledge Christ as Savior and Lord, but it also applies to those who accept Him as Savior and Lord, but forget to allow Him to be Lord.  We cannot condemn those who are lost while at the same time refusing to live under complete control of the Holy Spirit.  As followers of Christ, we should find peace in our lives, and this is not based on the circumstances of life.  When we are truly following the direction of the Holy Spirit, our soul is at peace with God.  Verse eight says, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.  This applies not only to those who have never accepted Christ, but to those who have as well.  When we become followers of Christ, we still have our free will, which at times will lead us to thoughts or actions that are based on the desires of the flesh.  While we are following the desires of the flesh, we cannot please God.  It doesn't matter how much good we may do in the world, as long as we allow sin to rule even one aspect of our lives, we cannot please God.  We can never have the attitude that since we are saved by the sacrifice of Christ, if we do sin the penalty is already paid, so it is not important.  When we allow sin back into our lives, we cannot please God.  Verse nine states, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.  Paul says that through Christ we no longer live by the dictates of the flesh but by the dictates of the Holy Spirit.  He says this is true because the Holy Spirit indwells those who belong to God, and if the Holy Spirit does not live in us, we do not belong to God.  Having the Holy Spirit indwell us is not a second blessing for a few, but an accomplished fact for all true believers.  When we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord of our life, the Holy Spirit immediately resides in us to guide and strengthen us.  The sin of the flesh is defeated, as long as we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  After lamenting the war between what he knew to do spiritually and what he was tempted to do through the flesh, the old human nature, Paul here states the reason to celebrate.  There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  We do not lose our relationship with God when we tempted to walk after the flesh, but we are covered by the blood of Christ forever.  Paul may have still had the temptation to follow his own will, but he knew that he should always follow the will of God.  It would indeed be much simpler if once we were saved we lost all pull to sin, but as long as we have this old mortal body of flesh we will face temptation.  The more closely we walk with Christ in the spirit, the less power temptation will have over us.  We need to cling to the promise that through Christ we have no condemnation, and this should lead us to an ever closer walk with Him.  Paul, one of the greatest Christians of all time recognized this war between the flesh and the spirit in his life, and we must also.  If we begin to think that as a follower of Christ we are immune to the temptation of sin, we are likely setting ourselves up for a fall.  Verse two says, For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.  Paul states that the Spirit of life in Christ made him free from the law of sin and death.  The same is true for us.  Through Christ, we are made truly free to be in a right standing with God.  The law could not do this because it depended on our ability to live up to the very spirit of the law.  Faith in Christ though depends not on our ability, but on His. We are simply required to come to Him by faith and live by faith through Him.  We are made free from attempting to find redemption through the law, which we could never do.  Verse three states, For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:  Paul here states again the good news, that God sent Christ into the world as a man Who lived without sin that He would therefore be able to redeem all of mankind.  Christ condemned sin in the flesh.  We can only blame our sins on our own free will.  Verse four says, That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  This is a continuation of the statement in verse three, that through Christ sin was defeated.  Through Christ, the righteousness of the law was fulfilled, and we can now choose to walk after the flesh by choosing our will or after the Spirit by choosing God's will for us.  In verse five, Paul emphasizes this, stating, For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.  We have the choice of being ruled by the things of the flesh, which lead to sin, or by the things of Christ, which lead to following the will of God.  Even as followers of Christ, it is a daily choice.  It should become easier to follow Christ the longer we serve Him, but it is still too easy to allow sin to creep in.

Romans 7:20 says, Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  Paul had just stated that he didn't do what he should and did do what he shouldn't in verse nineteen.  Now, he gives us the reason.  It is his giving in to sin that dwelled in him.  We know that once a person becomes a follower of Christ that the Holy Spirit dwells in them, but even when indwelled with the Holy Spirit, God does not take away our free choice.  Paul recognized this in his own life, and we must also.  It would be so much easier if once wa accepted Christ as Savior and Lord the Holy Spirit would then keep us from even thinking sinful thoughts, but that is not what happens.  There will come a day, when we do depart this corrupted world that sin will no longer be a temptation, but not as long as we live in this body of flesh.  Verse twenty one says, I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  Paul recognized the truth that the ability to give in to evil still existed in Him. We might want to think that as followers of Christ this is not true of us, but anytime we doubt God, evil wins.  This can be as simple as giving in to worry, when God has told us to put our trust in Him.  It could be coveting what someone else has or hating someone or some group because of what they have done to us.  It could also be feeling that we are morally superior to others.  I believe Paul recognized that he was still capable of these thoughts, and even actions, and warned us that the same is true for us. For the Bible to be meaningful, it must apply to the life of each individual.  In verse twenty two, Paul states, For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  He delighted in the law of God with the inward, or spiritual, man.  We may delight in the Bible inwardly, or spiritually, but how does that affect our everyday life?  In verse twenty three Paul tells us, But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  I believe Paul was saying that even though he knew what he should do mentally that the lusts of the flesh fought against that knowledge.  We as followers of Christ know what we should do, but we are still at times tempted to give in to sin due to the lusts of the flesh.  We are in a spiritual war, and if we surrender from the leadership and empowering of the Holy Spirit, we will lose.  In verse twenty four, Paul lamented, O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  He saw himself as wretched and asked Who could deliver him from the body of this death.  When we are not following the will of God through the power of Holy Spirit, we are indeed wretched.  We cannot be faithful to God by our own power.  Verse twenty five says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.  After asking Who could deliver him, Paul gave the answer: Jesus Christ our Lord.  Christ was not only Paul's Lord, but the Lord of all who believe.  We must make Christ the Lord of all our thoughts, or by the lust of the flesh we will again fall into sin.

Romans 8:16 states, The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:  We can know that we are the children of God because the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirit.  This is not something we may just long for or hope for, but it is something we can know beyond a doubt.  We just have to live by the faith that God gives us secure in the knowledge that we are His.  The Holy Spirit will always give us this assurance.  Verse seventeen says,  And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.   When we become the adopted children of Christ, we become joint-heirs with Christ.  Matthew Henry points out that under man's law, the first born often inherited the most, if not all of the estate.  This is still true of kingly succession in England for example.  The first born son, until recently, inherits the title and everything that goes with it.  With God, through Christ, we are all joint heirs with Christ.  We will never be pushed down to a lower position when someone else accepts Christ and becomes a part of the family of God, nor will they be under us because we became a part of God's family before them.  We are all joint-heirs with Christ.  Paul did say that as joint-heirs we may suffer with Christ.  Being a follower of Christ does not promise earthly riches, but instead warns us that the world will hate us.  Now, as followers of Christ, not all suffering that we experience is because of our relationship with Him.  I believe the suffering Paul is speaking of is the suffering that comes when we stand with God.  We are promised not that this will not occur, but only that the Holy Spirit will be with us to comfort and strengthen us.  In verse eighteen, Paul tells us, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  Paul does not say that there would be no sufferings, but that these sufferings are unworthy of being compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.  Following Christ does not remove the pains and problems of this world from us, but simply enables us to overcome them with the joy of knowing this will all one day pass away.  Verse nineteen says, For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  I believe that Paul is reminding us that we are but creatures, but we earnestly await the day that we will live as children of God with all the problems of the world removed.  Verse twenty says, For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,  Paul reminds us that as we live in this world we are still tempted to follow our own way instead of following God.  In verse twenty one Paul states, Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  There is coming a day when we will be totally freed from the corruption of this world and will be totally freed into the glorious liberty of being a child of God.  Unlike what some religions teach, we will not be gods, but simply the people that God intended mankind to be from creation.

Romans 7:15 says, For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.   Paul said that he didn't do the things that he knew he should do and did the things he knew he shouldn't do.  When we try to live by our own strength and power, and not by the leadership of the Holy Spirit, we find ourselves submitting to the power of sin once again.  Through Christ, sin has lost its power over us as long as we are firmly rooted in the will of God for our lives.  Yet, even as followers of Christ, we can allow sin to rule our actions if we are not careful.  Verse sixteen says, If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.  When we do the things that we should not do, we agree to consent to the law of God, which is good but can only condemn us.  This does not mean that we are suddenly not saved, but that we once again place our actions under the law, as we temporarily reject God's will.  We may know what we should or should not do as followers of Christ, but too often we give in to our old corrupt nature and lusts.  If Paul had this struggle, then we should not be surprised when we do also.  In verse seventeen Paul states, Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.   Paul said that the reason he did things that he knew he shouldn't do, or failed to do the things he knew he should, was because of submitting to sin.  He again was following the will of the world and not the leadership of the Holy Spirit.  We do not surrender our free will even in Christ, and in this world we will never become perfect.  Verse eighteen says, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  We need to understand the importance of accepting the fact that even as followers of Christ we are still very much capable of sinning against Him.  Anytime we fail to follow His will for our lives, no matter how small that failure may seem, we are again living by the flesh and not the spirit.  Verse nineteen says, For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Paul said he had intentions to do good, but didn't, and yet the evil that he thought he wouldn't do was what he did.  I don't believe we can say this was a continual state for Paul, but that he recognized that he at times acted in the flesh and not the spirit.  He was not perfect and neither are we.

Romans 7:7 says, What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. Paul tells us that we can never make the claim that the law of God is sin.  He says that it only points out our sins.  Paul said he wouldn't have know lust if the law had not told him not to covet.  Again, this goes beyond our actions to our very thoughts.  The law has a very important part in the lives of those who follow Christ. It points out our own weaknesses and points us to God, and then it still serves as a guide to how we are to live.  The law tells us how to relate to God and man.  Verse eight says, But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.  Paul said that because of sin the law was misapplied, leading to all manner of lust.  Paul had lusted to kill Christians thinking he was obeying the law.  The law is more than simply words written in stone.  It is God's love written in our hearts that we might effectively serve Him.  Paul knew the words but had not understood the spirit of the law.  In verse nine Paul states, For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.  I believe Paul is referring to the commandment of Christ that we follow Him.  Paul was alive under the Jewish law, but was dead under the commandment to follow Christ.  All his zeal for the law did not matter, because he didn't have a personal relationship with Christ.  Without that personal relationship, sin revived, leaving Paul dead in his relationship to God.  We can only be alive through that personal relationship with Christ.  Verse ten says, And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.  Christ's death, burial and resurrection will always be intended for life, but to those who refuse to accept His gift, it will be a sentence of everlasting spiritual death.  Verse eleven says, For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.  Again, I believe this applies to salvation through Christ.  Sin will deceive us into denying the necessity of following Christ as the only way to restore our relationship to God.  Verse twelve states, Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  Paul states that the law is holy, but the commandment of Christ is much more. It is holy, just, and good.  We can never declare the law of God to be bad, but it cannot bring us everlasting life with God.  Only Christ can do that.   Verse thirteen says, Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.   I believe Paul is telling us that the death of Christ for our sins, which was good, will be used by sinful people to attempt to lead us astray.  The Gospel is a stumbling block to many.  Verse fourteen states,  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.  We are carnal, corrupt beings sold under the power of sin until we allow Christ to set us free spiritually.  Then, we must live under the power and direction of God, having died to the power of sin in our lives.

Romans 7:1 says, Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?  Paul said that he was speaking to the Jews, God's people who knew the law.  He said the law had dominion over a person as long as they lived.  They could not claim that after being obedient to the law for many years, they were now exempt.  The wages of disobedience to the Law of God is death, and will be no matter how long we live, unless we accept God's free gift of grace.  Verse two says, For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  Paul used the example of marriage, and he used the woman in the example.  This may be because the woman had fewer rights than the man, but really should apply to both equally.  As long as her husband was alive, she was bound to him.  Once he was dead, though, she was freed from the marriage.  Verse three says, So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Death of her husband frees from the law of marriage, just as death frees us from all laws.  Paul was using marriage as an example that those who knew the Law of God could freely understand, but he was pointing to a bigger truth as we will see in verse four. Verse four states, Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  Once we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, we are no longer married to the Law, but we are married to Christ.  It is a now and an everlasting relationship.  Death does not free us from that relationship with Christ, but frees us from all that separates us from the perfect will of God.  The Law of God is not dead, but we are freed from the end result of the Law, which is death.  As long as we are married to the Law, we cannot be married to Christ.  I believe this means as long as we attempt to prove ourselves worthy of God by our own merits, we will never humbly accept the gift of grace.  Verse five states, For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.  I believe Paul was simply restating the truth of the flesh which will lead us to sin, which is made manifest by the law.  The result is death, both physical and spiritual.  We must come to God by faith in the spirit of truth.  Verse six says, But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of the spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.  We serve in a newness of spirit of the law, not attempting to justify ourselves by the letter of the law.  The purpose of the law was to point out our inability to save ourselves and to point to salvation through Christ by grace.  Through God's grace, we are freed from the power of sin.

Romans 6:18 states, Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Paul again points out that we are either the servant of sin or the servant of righteousness.  We do not like to think in terms of being a servant.  We want to be the master or at least the equal, but the truth is, we either serve Satan through sin or God through righteousness made available by Christ.  If we are to look to the true original sin, it was when Satan and a third of the angels decided they would be like God and rule, and they have been attempting to rule at least over people ever since the creation.  They are already defeated, and so will we be if we follow the way of sin.  Still, the devil can never make us do anything, in spite of what we may say.  Through Christ, we are made free from sin, and with it spiritual death, and because of that, we are to live in righteousness.  Verse nineteen says, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.   Paul said he spoke to us after the manner of men.  We have yielded to sin, to iniquity as a way of life, but through Christ we are to yield all that we are to the righteousness of God.  The choice is always ours.  We yield, either to Satan and sin or to God and righteousness.  Verse twenty says, For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. When we serve sin, refusing to acknowledge God and His gift of grace through Christ, we cannot be made righteous.  It is not a matter of how good or bad we are in relationship to other people.  We cannot be made righteous except through Christ, and when we are, we are to live in righteousness.  In verse twenty one, Paul asks, What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.  We should be ashamed of the sinful things we did before we became followers of Christ, and more so those that we have done since.  We did not sacrifice anything for Christ, but He sacrificed everything for us.  When we start to speak of what we gave up to follow Christ, we can only claim to have given up spiritual death.  Verse twenty two says, But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.  Paul tells us that once we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord we begin to bear fruits of holiness.  The result of this faith in Christ is everlasting life with God.  We are not called simply to go through life awaiting that everlasting life in heaven, but to bear fruits of righteousness while we are here.  God created mankind with a purpose, and He redeems us the same way.  We are to carry out God's will for our lives.  Verse twenty three states, For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  This is our message to the world.  We can either choose the death we earn through sin or everlasting life that God's grace gives us with Him through Christ.  There are no more options.

Romans 6:14 says, For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  Again we need to remember that Paul was speaking first to the Jews.  They believed that the Law was the way to a correct relationship with God, but they could never live up to and often even corrupted the real meaning of the Law.  Paul tells us that we are not under the Law, but under the grace of God, which can never be misapplied.  We are not in control of the grace of God.  We can share the truth of God's grace with the world, but we can never withhold it.  No matter how we may feel about a person or group of people, God's grace will always be available to them.  As Matthew Henry points out, there are only two families we can belong to.  One is the family of God through His grace, and the other is the family of sin by rejecting His grace.  There is no middle ground.  Verse fifteen says, What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Paul once more addresses the concept of sinning, of willfully disobeying the will of God since we are under His grace, and he once again emphatically states that we should never have this attitude.  God forbid, Paul said.  I believe we can be certain that God would indeed forbid such thought.  Sin does not become any less devastating just because we are saved through Christ.  We must always recognize sin for what it is, and that is disobedience to the will of God.  As followers of Christ, though we are far from perfect, that should always be our goal.  The more we are guided by the Holy Spirit, the closer we come to this standard.  Verse sixteen states, Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?  Here, Paul once again presented the two choices every person has.  We can either be the servant of sin unto death, or the servant of obedience to righteousness thorough Christ.  Some people might fool themselves into believing that if they deny Christ they are free to make their own decisions, but they simply fool themselves.  They are still under the dominion of sin.  Again, there are but two choices.  I have heard people say they had rather rule in hell than to serve in heaven, but the truth is they will ultimately serve in one place or the other.  We just have to chose where we serve.  Verse seventeen says, But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.  We should indeed thank God that we are no longer the servants of sin if we accept the doctrine of Christ.  This is the gift of grace.

Romans 6:8 says, Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:  Paul states now if, and that is always the key.  We can question the existence of Christ or the truth of His death, burial and resurrection, but that does not change the fact that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again to bring salvation to all.  That is why the now if is needed.  Christ died for all sins, but not all accept His sacrifice and believe in what He did.  There are those who say that they cannot believe that a loving God would send anyone to hell, and He doesn't.  He will allow people, already forgiven through Christ, to choose to ignore that gift and go away into everlasting punishment, though.  Again, it is a choice of the free will of man.  When we accept Christ as Savior and Lord, we live in Him.  Verse nine states, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.  Paul states that once Christ rose from the dead, sin had no dominion over Him.  Through our faith in Christ, we have that same assurance.  Verse ten continues this thought saying, For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.  Christ did not have to die over and over to pay the penalty of sin.  That in no way frees us to sin by saying the penalty is already paid so it doesn't matter.  The second half of the verse says that Christ lives and He lives unto God.  After we accept salvation through Christ, we are to live unto God.  Sin no longer has dominion over us and should never be something we desire.  We are to live for God's glory.  This is stated clearly in verse eleven, which says, Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  We are dead to sin.  This does not mean that we become perfect people, but that we are to strive to live in the perfect will of God.  We are alive through Christ our Lord.  Where we get into trouble is when we want Christ as our Savior, but forget this means He is also our Lord.  Verse twelve says, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.  We still have a choice to let sin into our lives again, even if we are followers of Christ.  This happens when we don't rely on the Holy Spirit for guidance and strength and attempt to live by our own wisdom and power.  We should quickly recognize when this occurs and never allow sin to reign for any length before asking God for forgiveness.  Verse thirteen says, Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.  Paul tells us we are never to use any part of our body for unrighteousness, but we are to live as those who are freed from death through Christ.  We are to be vibrant people through the power of the Holy Spirit, and not ruled by the desires of sin.

Romans 6:1 says, What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  Paul had asked this question before in chapter three, verse eight, as having been falsely proclaimed by some.  We do not need to continue to sin in order to increase the grace of God.  His grace is sufficient for all sin for all time, but it is not a license to sin, and certainly not a call to sin.  As followers of Christ, we are not given time off for bad behavior.  We cannot discount sin as already being paid for and therefore showing more glory to God's mercy if we do sin.  Verse two answers, stating, God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Paul again strongly denied this idea.  He said God forbid such thinking, and then asked how we could be dead to sin through Christ and still want to live in sin.  Through Christ, sin has lost it power over us and should have lost its appeal as well.  We are a new creature in Christ.  Verse three states, Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?  Paul asked if they understood what baptism in Christ meant, and his question applies to followers of Christ today.  Christ's death paid the penalty of sin, and when we accept Him as our Savior, we accept His death for to pay the price for our sins.  This frees us from both the power and penalty of sin.  Verse four then says, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  Paul tells us that since we are baptized into the death of Christ for our sins, and since He was raised to the glory of God, so should we be.  We are to walk in newness of life, no longer allowing sin to rule us.  Though we do not become perfect, we can never say that we are sinning that God's grace might be magnified.  Verse five states, For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:  Paul tells I believe that when we have been buried, or planted, as followers of Christ in the acceptance of his sacrifice for us, we will also be resurrected as He was.  For us, that means we will have our relationship with God restored when we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord.  Verse six says, Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.  Through our faith in Christ, sin loses its power over us and we are no longer to serve sin.  The Holy Spirit now indwells us to strengthen and guide us, and through our faith in God we can overcome all temptation.  When we do fail, we are truly without excuse.  Though we do not lose our eternal salvation, we do lose our closeness with God.  Verse seven says, For he that is dead is freed from sin.  When we physically die, we can be sure that we are freed from sinning, but even more so, as we accept Christ's death on the cross for our sins, we are spiritually dead to the power of sin.  As long as we maintain our relationship to Christ, we will no longer give in to the power of sin.

Romans 5:16 says, And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.   I believe that Paul was speaking of the sin of Adam, but I also believe we can apply it to each person since.  Sin, rebellion against God, is a choice that each of us makes at some point in life, and we cannot blame it on anyone else.  We may say that it is not fair since we don't live in a perfect world as Adam and Eve did, but neither did Jesus, and He lived without sin.  In order for the sacrifice of Christ to be truly meaningful, we must acknowledge that He was fully human and subject to temptation just as we are.  There is always a tendency to want to blame someone else for our sins, but we are alone responsible.  Still, because of the sacrifice of Christ, the sins of the world were paid for, but it is up to each individual to accept that gift of grace.  Verse seventeen says, For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)   This again states the truth that Christ died, not for a selected group, but for all.  We just have to accept this abundance of grace and gift of righteousness made available through Christ.  It is so sad to know that those who go away to eternal separation from God do so with their sins, that which separates them from God, already forgiven through Christ, but they simply choose not to accept that gift of grace.  Verse eighteen states, Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.  This again states that by the righteousness of one Man, Jesus Christ, the free gift of salvation came to all people for all time, if they only accept that gift.  Verse nineteen says, For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.  We can read this to mean that by Adam's disobedience all men were made sinners, but we cannot say in my opinion that we are guilty because of the sin of Adam.  Each person chooses at some point to rebel against the will of God, and just as the sin of Adam affected many, so does ours.  Not that our sin makes them guilty, but that we lead them away from God's will.  The good news is that the obedience of Christ makes salvation available to all.  Verse twenty says, Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:  Paul said that the Law only made sin abound.  This was not the purpose of the Law, but the result due to the failure of even one person to keep the Law, until Christ came.  That is where grace abounded, with the coming of Jesus Christ to fulfill the Law on behalf of everyone.  Verse twenty one says, That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.  Through sin, we earn death.  Through grace, by believing in the sacrifice of Christ for us, we are given everlasting life.  It is a simple choice, with nothing in between.

Romans 5:12 says, Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  We know that when God created the world that He pronounced it good.  Adam and Eve walked and talked with God freely, but were given a choice of whether or not to obey God.  Paul states that thorough one man, Adam, sin entered into the world, but we cannot blame Adam for our sins.  Through each individual since Adam, sin enters into our relationship to God.  I do not stand guilty before God for the sins of Adam, but for my own sins.  Verse thirteen says, (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  Sin existed in the world from the time of Adam, even before the giving of the Law of God.  Sin has to do with our relationship to God.  Adam was called to obey God, and was told what would happen if he didn't.  We today, when we are born into this world, are born to obey God, and as soon as we know what He wants of us and disobey we earn death.  We cannot blame our separation from God on anything but our own sin.  Verse fourteen says, Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.  This is a continuation of the idea stated in verse thirteen.  Death reigned from Adam to Moses, because disobedience to the will of God brought death into the world.  If Adam, or anyone since, had lived in total obedience to God, then Christ's death would not have been necessary.  No one else since Adam and Eve have walked with God as they did in a perfect place to live, but our sins are still our own.  We still have a choice, and still choose sin.  Verse fifteen says, But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.  Paul tells us that by the sin of one man many are dead.  The tree of life was removed because of the sin of Adam, but everlasting life was restored by the grace of God through one Man, Jesus Christ.  It is up to each individual to accept or reject that gift.  If we do accept it, we like Adam and Eve can walk freely with God as we then have the Holy Spirit living in us.  This is not an option, but an accomplished fact.

Romans 5:6 says, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.   I believe here Paul tells us once again why Jesus had to die on the cross.  We are without strength to save ourselves, as the nation of Israel and the rest of the world had proven over and over.  When the time was right for God, He sent Jesus to die for our sins.  We must never question God's plans or His timing.  We might wonder why God waited so long to send the Messiah, but we must be satisfied with His timing.  What we really need to understand is that Jesus died for the ungodly.  This also included those who were called God's people, because no one was or is capable of saving themself.  Verse seven says, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  Paul stated that most people would not die for a righteous man, one who was unjustly condemned, according to Matthew Henry.  We most likely will never be called on to place our life on the line for another, but there are some people we would be willing to die for to save them in this worldly life.  There are some who would even be willing to die for a good person that the world might not even recognize as being important.  Matthew Henry says this a person who is useful to the world.  I believe this would be someone we know or place a great value on.  I believe Paul was moving from the righteous, those who attempted to do God's will, to the good, those who attempted to have a right relationship with others.  What I believe we can know Paul was saying is that most of us would not willingly die for either a righteous or a good person.  I don't believe he was talking about people who have jobs that sometimes require them to place their lives on the line for others, though this would still apply.  I believe he was talking about the average person in an average situation.  Then, verse eight states, But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Christ did not die for anyone who was not guilty.  We were still sinners when He died for us.  We cannot become good and righteous in the eyes of God by our own merit.  Verse nine says, Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.   Paul tells us that when we are justified by Christ, we are saved from the wrath of God.  God will never take sin lightly, and neither should we.  Christ sets us free from that earned wrath of God.  Verse ten continues this thought stating, For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.  We were reconciled by the death of Christ and saved by His life.  Christ paid the penalty for our sins by His death and gives us life by His resurrection. There is no other way to salvation.  Verse eleven says, And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.  Paul calls on us to have joy through Christ, no matter what may be happening to us in the world .  We need to capture that joy everyday.  We are to be a rejoicing people because we are forever atoned through Christ.

Romans 5:1 says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:  When we are justified by our faith, we have peace with God.  If we find ourselves questioning God, or seemingly at war with His will for our lives, we need to return to our faith.  Faith in God keeps us secure, not only in this life, but in life everlasting.  When we truly grasp this concept, we will never falter.  Verse two continues this thought, stating, By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Paul stated that through faith in Christ, we have access to into God's grace, and in that grace is where we should stand.  God does not call us into a limited standing in His grace, but into a full fellowship by His grace.  As Paul states, we should rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  We as followers of Christ should be a rejoicing people.  We have an everlasting relationship with God, so nothing should keep us from rejoicing in that relationship. Verse three states,  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;  Paul had just stated that we are to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and now he states that we are to rejoice in tribulation as well.  Many would claim that as followers of Christ that He only wants happiness and success for us, but Paul knew the truth that tribulations could come from our following Christ.  The question is never if tribulations will come, but how we will react when they do.  We can either rejoice in Christ during any tribulation that comes our way, or we can falter in our faith and question or even blame God for our problems.  We must also remember that these tribulations come from our faith in God and not from our own following after the way of the world instead of obeying God.  Verse four tells us, And patience, experience; and experience, hope:  Paul is telling us that we learn by the experience that patience brings, and this brings us hope.  When we patiently wait on the will of God to be made manifest to us, we learn that we can always rely on Him.  Verse five says, And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.  Paul continues by saying that we are not to be ashamed of hope in Christ, because the Holy Spirit sheds the love of God in our hearts.  We can never be effective followers of Christ if we are in any way or at any time ashamed of the gospel, because the Holy Spirit is with us at all times filling our hearts with the love of God.

Romans 4:18 says, Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. Abraham, or Abram as he was known when he was called, had no reason to believe that God would use him in such a spectacular way.  He could only hope through faith.  He had to believe in the reality of God's promise and act on it.  Our only hope today is to believe through faith in the reality of the promise of God that we are saved through faith in Christ and to act on it.  There should never be a wavering of our faith.  When we accept Christ as our Savior and follow Him, we don't need to wake up every morning wondering if we are truly saved that day.  Just as Abraham through his faith belonged to God forever, so do we. Abraham was not perfect when God called him, nor did he become perfect.  Verse nineteen says, And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb:  Abraham could have looked at the facts and decided that there was no way that God could carry out his promise.  We can either believe in the power of God or the facts that the world presents to us.  The world tells us that we are foolish or delusional to believe that we can be saved by putting our faith in Christ, who died over two thousand years ago.  We either accept God's word as truth and come to Him through faith, or we look at the world and say that salvation makes no sense and cannot be true.  Verse twenty says of Abraham, He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  Abraham did not stagger at the promise of God, and neither should we.  We need to look to the power of God and not the negativity of the world.  Sometimes, if we look at a situation strictly from the facts the world presents, we may want to question our faith, but we must never waiver in our faith in God.  Verse twenty one states, And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  Abraham believed that God could perform what He promised, and we so should we.  Verse twenty two states,  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.  Abraham's belief, his faith in God, was what brought him into a right relationship with God, and not his following of any ritual, and the same is true for us today.  Verse twenty three says, Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;  This is why we today have hope.  The promise of God was not to Abraham alone, but to all who believe.  Verse twenty four makes this very clear, stating, But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;  God's promises are for all who believe He raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.  There is nothing added to this requirement.  Through faith in God alone and His atonement through Christ can we find salvation.  Verse twenty five states.  Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.   Christ died for all people for all time, and through His death and resurrection alone can we find hope.

Romans 4:13 says, For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.  This is a continuation of the discussion of faith verses the Law.  Paul spent a lot of time discussing this issue, because the Jews were claiming justification by the Law and the necessity of others to follow the Law, and the rituals that they applied to it, in order to be considered a part of God's family.  We need to understand this concept today, so that nothing is added to the requirement for salvation.  We are saved through faith in Christ alone, and none is more saved than another.  Verse fourteen continues this thought stating, For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:  I believe Paul was stating the basic truth of salvation, for all those who came before Christ and all those who have and will come since, and that is if there is any other way to salvation than through faith in Christ, then His sacrifice on the cross is made void.  We have to firmly claim and proclaim this truth today.  Through the promise of Christ alone do we have salvation.  Those who came before Christ looked to the promise in faith, and those who have come since look back on the fulfillment of that promise.  Christ died for the sins of all people for all time.  It is up to each individual how they respond to that sacrifice.  Verse fifteen says,  Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. The law establishes the fact that we are sinners, but can do nothing to save us.  We can only earn punishment by the law, since to fail in one point is the same as failing in all.  There are no degrees of sin or minor sins with God, and the law of God makes us aware of those sins.  Verse sixteen states,  Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.  Here I believe Paul was pointing out the superiority of the grace of God over the law of God.  Grace is received simply by faith in God, not by our own efforts to become good enough to be God's people.  Grace is for all people, and not just for those born into a particular family or nation.  Still today, the Jews feel that they are the only people of God, but this verse tells us that all who come to God by faith in His grace are the descendants of Abraham.  We are a part of that great nation that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of.  Verse seventeen says,  (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.  This verse continues to speak of Abraham as the father of many nations, through the quickening power of God.  Once we accept Christ as our Savior, we are made alive for evermore in our relationship to God.  This is never earned, but is always a free gift from God.

Romans 4:1 says, What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?  The Jews considered themselves, and still consider themselves, the children of Abraham.  They claimed a special relationship with God simply by being born into the Jewish nation, so Paul asked them what Abraham found concerning the flesh.  Verse two states, For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.  Paul declares that if Abraham were justified by his works, he might glorify himself before men, but never before God.  Paul said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews.  If anyone could stand in Paul's day justified and glorifying before God by their works, it was Paul before he came to Christ through faith.  We can never stand justified before God by our own works, nor should we expect people to glorify us for them.  In verse three, Paul asks, For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God,and it was counted unto him for righteousness.  When we teach about God, it must be consistent with what the scripture says, and we must take it in context.  We cannot search for a verse to support what we want to believe without considering what the whole passage says.  By picking a verse here and a verse there, we can justify many things, but we must always ask if this is consistent with the whole scripture.  Paul was asking the Jews of his day what the scripture said about the justification of Abraham, and the scripture said it was his belief in God that was counted for faith.  Verse four states, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.   I believe Paul was saying to us that if we can work for our salvation then God owes it to us as His debt to us.  We would not be saved by God's grace, but by our own merit.  Verse five counters this idea stating, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.  I believe Paul was once again stating that redemption comes only through faith in salvation made available through Christ by the grace of God.  If we had to earn our salvation, how would we ever know how much work was required?  Would those who worked more faithfully for God attain a greater salvation?  Salvation by the grace of God means that all are equally and totally saved, no matter how much work they have done.  This does not mean that we are not to do God's work, but we are to do it for His glory and not for our justification.

Romans 3:28 says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.  These last three verses are somewhat of a summation of what Paul had been teaching in the first part of the chapter.  Paul starts with the underlying principal of salvation, and that is that we are justified by faith alone.  No matter how good we may feel that we are, no matter how morally superior we may feel to others, we cannot be justified by the Law.  We must come to God humbly through faith in Jesus Christ as our Redeemer.  We cannot just do better when we have sinned and hope to justify ourselves, but we must ask God's forgiveness through faith.  It requires more than just words.  True faith requires a broken and contrite heart as we ask for God's forgiveness.  Verse twenty nine asks, Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:  Paul was asking the question based on the way the Jews saw the world in his day, and that was that they were God's people, and everyone else was a Gentile, and therefore not as worthy of God's love and blessings as they were.  Matthew Henry asks if we think that God limited His love to that perverse little group of people who were the Jews.  We today could ask this question based on any number of qualifiers.  God is not just the God of a particular nationality or ethnic group, but He is the God of all believers, and we are all equal in His sight.  Verse thirty says, Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.  There is but one God, and He alone can justify people through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.  Our religious service must come from faith in this fact for it to have any meaning.  Verse thirty one then states, Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.  Faith does not negate the Law of God, but establishes it.  The Ten Commandments are no longer written on stone, but are written in our hearts, for example.  God's Law is still God's Law.

Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;  This is a continuation of Paul's discussion as to why there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile and why the Law could not save us.  All have sinned.  The degree of sin may vary, but God did not say that the wages for some sins is death, but that the wages of any sin is death.  We earn death by our sins.  God does not just arbitrarily impose death for sin on some while forgiving others.  Verse twenty four says, Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:  Their is only one way to restore our relationship to God, and that is through the redemption of Christ.  We are justified freely by God's grace.  Again, we cannot earn salvation, but can only accept the free gift of grace from God.  Verse twenty five says, Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; God sent Jesus as be a propitiation for all sins, past, present and future.  Christ paid the price for those who had gone before Him, those who were there with Him, and those of us who have come since.  Verse twenty six states, To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.  God declared His righteousness through Jesus Christ, Who is the only One Who can justify us.  There is a penalty for any and all sin, and that is death.  We can choose to accept the free gift of redemption through faith in Christ as our Savoir, or we can choose to take the penalty on ourselves.  God always gives us the choice. Verse twenty seven says, Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.  We cannot boast of our salvation because it is a gift of grace.  We did nothing to earn it by our own goodness, by our birth into a particular family, or by God's Law.  Though we are to boldly proclaim salvation through Christ to the world, the emphasis must always be on Christ and never on us.  Our only claim can be that we are sinners saved by grace.

Romans 3:19 says, Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.  I believe Paul was saying that God's law applied to the Jews, those under the Law, and that it could not lead to bragging, but only to guilt before God.  The Pharisees in Jesus' day liked to boast of their keeping of the Law while at the same time condemning Jesus.  We cannot stand on our own goodness, but must humbly acknowledge that the only way to salvation is through accepting the gift of Christ for our redemption.  Even in the secular world today, we may feel superior to those who have committed great crimes, but we must remember in God's eyes, any sin brings the penalty of death.  Verse twenty reminds us of this, stating, Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.  The Law of God was given to point people to God, but was never a way to salvation.  No one can be justified by the Law.  Many Jews in Jesus' day, and even today I would guess, believed that by nature of their birth as a Jew they were automatically God's people.  Paul was reminding them, and us, that we can never be justified before God by our own righteousness.  No one can ever live up to God's standards by their own virtue.  The Law can only point us to our own sin. Verse twenty one says, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;  God's righteousness is manifested without the Law through Jesus Christ, but this was no new concept.  The law had been but a guide to point people to their own inability to live up to God's calling and the prophets pointed to the Messiah, Who is Jesus Christ.  Once Christ came, though we are still to attempt to live by God's standards or law, it is in no way to be seen as a requirement for salvation.  Some Jews in Paul's day were attempting to require Jewish rituals to be observed in order to truly be saved.  Verse twenty two says, Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:  This righteousness of God comes by faith in Jesus Christ, and is available to all people.  There is no Jew or Gentile in Christ.  We are all saved by faith through the grace of God by accepting the salvation made available to all through Christ.  Even when gentiles converted to Judaism, the Jews still did not see them as equals.  We must guard against having the same attitude toward other Christians.  We are all equal in Christ.

Romans 4:6-7 says, Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.  Paul once again refers to the scripture and one of the great men of the Jews, King David.  Paul reminded them that David had taught that righteousness was given to them by God without any works on their part.  The Hebrews, or Jews, were chosen not because of their power and greatest to be God's people, but because of their weakness and insignificance in the eyes of the world.  When they did great things, it was not that they could be glorified, but so that God would be.  We need to understand that concept today.  We are not followers of Christ because of our own goodness and power, but we are His followers because of our own inabilities.  We are weak and insignificant and incapable of saving ourselves.  Verse eight states, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.  If we want something to be thankful for everyday, we need only to look to this truth.  As followers of Christ, we are blessed because God does not hold us accountable for our sins.  The sins are not done away with, but the penalty for them is.  Sin will always be sin, but by the salvation of Christ, those sins are put behind God, to be looked on no more.  Verse nine asks, Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness.  Paul again refers to Abraham, the father of the Jewish faith, asking if he was blessed by circumcision or by faith.  Paul answered that it was by faith.  We today are not blessed by any earthly ritual, but by faith in Christ alone.  We cannot justify ourselves by any religious ritual.  Verse ten says,
How was it then reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.  Abraham was found faithful by God, not by His actions, but by his faith in God long before circumcision became a sign for the Hebrew nation.  Through faith today we are justified by God before any sign, such as baptism, has any meaning.  Verse eleven states, And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:  Paul said to them and to us that circumcision was a sign of the righteousness of faith, that Abraham through his faith might be the father, not of all who were circumcised, but of all who believe.  We all are not called to be brothers and sisters of all who follow certain rituals, but of all who believe in Christ.  Verse twelve then says, And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.  Here Paul was stating the good news for all who are not Jewish.  God chose to work through Abraham to call all people to Him, and not just the Hebrews.  God works through followers of Christ the same way today, not to just call certain people to Him, but to call all people.

Romans 3:13 says, Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:  God's people, instead of proclaiming Him to the world, were filled with deceit in their words.  We must remember who the author of lies and deceit is, and that is Satan himself.  When we do not live by the truth of God, we live by the lies of Satan.  There is no neutral ground.  We cannot proclaim deceitful words without being as poisonous as a serpent.  Verse fourteen says, Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:  Now, we can interpret this to mean full of profanity, but I believe it is much more than that.  It is speaking against God or calling for Him to punish others while forgiving us.  This leads to a bitterness in life.  We are not to ask God's punishment on others out of hatred, but are to ask His forgiveness of them out of love.  The Jews in Paul's day had forgotten this, and they had started despising other people.  We must guard against the same attitude today.  Verse fifteen says, Their feet are swift to shed blood:  Paul moved from their speech to their actions.  They were glad to see those that they felt superior to destroyed, even Jesus Himself.  We as followers of Christ today must not be quick to shed the blood of those we see as a threat to God or to ourselves.  God calls us to witness out of love that flows from Him.  Verse sixteen states, Destruction and misery are in their ways:  We are called not to destroy the world and all that is in it, but to work to preserve it.  We hear so many times today of people destroying property or even burning church buildings just for spite.  I believe that the misery is more theirs than that of those whose property they destroy.  As God's people, we are to live lives of joy in Him, no matter what evil goes on around us.  Verse seventeen says, And the way of peace have they not known:  There is only one way to know true peace, and that is through acknowledging Christ as our Savior and Lord, so naturally those who deny Him can never know peace.  Verse eighteen gets to the root of the problem, stating, There is no fear of God before their eyes.   When people have no fear of, or respect for God, we cannot expect them to have any respect for anyone else.  It is the great responsibility that God gives us, to allow us to deny His very existence.

Romans 3:9 states, What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;  Paul said that of their own ability the Jew was no better than the Gentile.  He was speaking of those who professed to be God's people but who did not live under God's leadership.  We could make this same statement of those today who profess to believe in God but don't feel the need to live by His truth.  Paul said that the Jew was no better than the Gentile, because all had sinned.  Where we were born nor the family we were born into exempts us from the penalty of sin.  Matthew Henry points out that verses ten through twelve are taken from Psa 14:1-3, which are repeated as containing a very weighty truth found in Psa 53:1-3.  Paul did not come up with truth about God that opposed the Scriptures, but that fulfilled it instead.  We must do the same today.  God is not suddenly going to give us an insight that goes against His written Word.  Verse ten makes this abundantly clear, stating, As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:  The Jew in Paul's day, nor anyone who came before or after, could claim to be righteous by their own merit, except for Jesus Christ Himself.  When we are judged by the Law of God, which includes not only our actions but our thoughts as well, we are all guilty.  We are not judged by our comparison to other people, but by our comparison to Christ, and He alone is without sin.  Verse eleven says, There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.  Paul was speaking to the Jews who relied on their own status in worldly understanding to bring them into the right status with God.  They did not understand or seek after God.  We today can never rely on our own abilities to save us, but must seek after God in all things.  Verse twelve states, They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.   God's chosen people had become unprofitable to God, and Paul said that not one did good.  Until they accepted the Messiah, Jesus Christ, this would remain the case, as it was for all Gentiles.  Though I do not believe that it is possible to lose ones salvation, it is possible to become unprofitable to God by the way we live.  We must always remember that Christ is not only our Savior, but also our Lord.

Romans 3:5 says, But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance, (I speak as a man) I believe Paul here is addressing the concept that since our sins prove the righteousness of God, then God has no right to punish us for our sins.  The argument seemed to be if the unbelief of the Jew led to the gospel going to the Gentiles, then how could God be upset with the Jews.  We need to be wary of ever getting the idea that we, especially as followers of Christ, can sin because God has provided us with salvation and since that is true, He is glorified further by our future sins.  Our unrighteousness may point others to Christ, but this does not mean that God is unfair in punishing our sin.  Paul said even as a carnal man he recognized that the concept that our sin somehow ultimately glorifies God and is therefore acceptable is wrong.  We can never justify our sins, even if they lead to the glory of God ultimately.  Verse six says, God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?  Paul again makes a strong declaration that God forbid such thinking.  If we believe that our sins are simply another way of bringing honor to God because He shows greater forgiveness, and this is true, then God really couldn't judge the world.  This leads to the idea that everyone is ultimately going to be saved, no matter what, because this proves the glory of God.  Paul stated very strongly that this was not the case.  We can never justify sin as being a way to show the glory of God.  Verse seven states, For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory; why yet am I also judged as a sinner?  Paul asks how he could be judged a sinner if his lies led to the truth of God.  Even if lies that we present about God ultimately lead to showing the truth of His forgiveness, we will still be held accountable for our sins.  Only through the truth of accepting Christ as our Savior and Lord can we find forgiveness.  Verse eight concludes this thought stating, And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just.  There may be people today who make false claims about what Christianity proclaims, but we need to be quick to point out the errors and stand firmly on the world of God.  We can never let it be said that we are free to sin so we can bring glory to God.

Romans 3:1 states, What advantage then hath the Jew? or what profit is there of circumcision?  Paul was discussing the Jew versus the Gentile, and here was raising the question that many might have had based on what he had said.  If being identified as one of God's people made no difference, then what was the advantage in being a Jew?  In verse two, Paul begins to answer, stating, Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.  Paul said the chief advantage of the Jew was that God's Law, His oracles, were committed to them.  Matthew Henry says that the Jews were the keepers of God's library for the Christians.  They were given the words of life to point people to God and the coming Messiah.  We, as the church today, have these same words of truth.  The Jews preserved the Old Testament for us, and it is our responsibility to preserve and share the Old and New Testament for the world today and for generations to come.  Verse three says, For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?  Paul had been discussing the unbelieving Jew and the believing Gentile.  Here, Paul was stating that the unbelief of some, even the majority of the Jews, did not make belief in God be without effect.  The fact that some today profess to be Christians but fail to follow God's plan for salvation does not mean that God's plan is ineffective.  We, as followers of Christ, as the church, still are entrusted with the word of God, and those who are truly His, in word and deed, have every advantage.  We can never let the actions of others, even those who profess to belong to God but don't acknowledge His truth stand between us and God.  Verse four declares, God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.  Here Paul was making a declaration of the eternal truth of God.  God's truth will never fail to be the truth, even if the whole world attempts to deny it.  The only way we are going to be able to overcome when we are judged is by accepting the truth of God.  Our lies may fool the world, but they will never fool God.

Romans 2:25 says, For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law: but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.  In these next few verses, Paul discusses circumcision of the Jew, the identifying mark that set them apart from the rest of the world.  It was not just to be a physical act, but was to be a sign of a spiritual relationship.  I am not sure exactly what we can equate this to today, but any sign that says to the world that we are followers of Christ while we are breaking his law is the same thing.  I guess wearing a cross or carrying a Bible, which those of the world might see as identifying us as Christians, while speaking badly of others, for example, would be similar.  It is not enough to live with outward signs of being a follower of Christ without a change of our heart toward our relationship with God and the lost of the world.  Verse twenty six says, Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?  Here I believe that Paul was talking about earthly signs identifying Jews as God's people.  He was warning them that the uncircumcised, those the Jews considered as lost, had a better claim to belonging to God if they kept the law than did the Jew if they didn't.  We today may feel that professing to belong to Christ makes us better than the rest of the world, but if the lost live more by the laws of God than we do, then I believe Paul was saying that their actions would counted as more than our profession without obedience.  We must remember, of course, that the Law cannot save.  I think we can apply this to those who have never heard the gospel, but who attempt to live Godly lives.  They are more justified than those who profess Christ without a change in nature.  In verse twenty seven we read, And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?  Paul, I believe, is still speaking of real obedience to God as opposed to simply following rituals without any real dedication to God that they represent.  It is a warning to us today as well.  Verse twenty eight and twenty nine continues with, For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.  Paul was distinguishing between outward, physical signs of obedience to God and the real inward change of the heart that is necessary to belong to God.  Worldly signs of obedience to God can come from self pride, but true obedience comes from humility.  Only through Christ can we have salvation, and that can never lead us to feeling more worthy of God's love than anyone else.

Romans 2:21 says, Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?  After reminding the Jews that they were to teach others about the will of God, here he made it personal to them.  When they taught others, did they not also believe that these teachings applied to themselves.  Paul used the example of stealing, but we could apply it to any sin.  As followers of Christ, if we teach that it is wrong to hate, for example, do we yet hate others?  We must not teach one thing when reaching out to the lost and live as though those teachings do not apply to us.  We must always apply the teachings to our own lives first.  Verse twenty two continues with another example, asking, Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?  Paul cited two more examples here of where the Jews, God's chosen people, might be teaching one thing and doing another.  It is sometimes easier to expect others to live by God's law than it is for us to live by His law ourselves, but we cannot be effective by doing that.  This was what Paul was telling those in his day and what applies to us today.  We are to be the example, not just by what we say but by how we live.  We cannot condemn the sins of others while excusing our own sins.  Verse twenty three says, Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonourest thou God?  Paul was warning the Jews about boasting about the law to others while breaking it themselves.  For us today, as followers of Christ for example, it is not enough to boast about and display the Ten Commandments without following them.  That includes all of them, plus Christ's commandment that we love one another.  Verse twenty four then states, For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you, as it is written.  Paul told the Jews that their actions caused the name of God to be blasphemed among the Gentiles, the lost of the world.  We must be very careful that our actions today do not do the same thing.  Until we put God first in all aspects of our lives we are in danger of bringing dishonor to His name.

Romans 2:17 says, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God,  Paul was pointing out that those that called themselves Jews were proud of the fact.  They boasted about God, but that was not what they were called to do.  God did not chose them because they were special, but they were special because God chose them.  We as followers of Christ have no reason to think that we by nature are any better than anyone else.  Matthew Henry says of this, "A believing, humble, thankful glorying in God, is the root and summary of all religion, Psa 34:2; Isa 45:15; Co1 1:31. But a proud vainglorious boasting in God, and in the outward profession of his name, is the root and summary of all hypocrisy. Spiritual pride is of all kinds of pride the most dangerous."  The Jews then and we as followers of Christ today are called to a humble glorifying of God, not a proud and self-righteous outward profession of a belief in God.  Verse eighteen says, And knowest his will, and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law;  Those who profess to know God should know His will.  It is not enough to know the truth of God without knowing the will of God.  Many people today know about Christ, some even accept Him as a historical figure, but they do not acknowledge the will of God for Christ to be their Redeemer.  Paul was speaking to God's chosen people in these verses, so it is safe to say that many professed themselves to be Jews without acknowledging the will of God.  There are likewise those today who profess themselves to be followers of Christ who do not acknowledge the will of God.  We can know every verse of the Bible and attend every worship service, but still not acknowledge God's will for our lives.  We are called to humbly serve God and share the gospel, and not to stand in pride condemning others.  Verse nineteen says,  And art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness,  We, as followers of Christ, are called on to be a guide to salvation to those who are lost, just as the Jews were in Paul's day.  They were failing in their calling, and we must be careful that we do not do the same.  Verse twenty says, An instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.  Paul continued his statement as to what the Jews were to be, and this also tells us what we are to be.  We teach those who do not believe, the foolish, about God. We are to teach them the truth of God, and not just some form of that  truth.  We can never rely anything less than a true relationship with God if we are to teach others about Him.  We cannot proclaim a form of the gospel based on our own goodness or ability, but must rely on our relationship with God to guide us.