Romans - Roger Yenkins

April 10 2018

Sin Cannot Win

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He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels. (Isaiah 53:12)

Sooner or later we all feel the painful effects of sin. Sometimes it’s the weight of our own sin and the shame and embarrassment of having failed miserably. At other times, it’s the load of someone else’s sin that weighs us down-someone who betrayed, deceived, abandoned, ridiculed, cheated, or made a fool of us.

Think about a time when the weight of that guilt or pain was so heavy that you couldn’t pull yourself out of bed. Now try to imagine the heaviness of the combined grief that everyone’s sin has caused your family, your church, your neighborhood. Add to that all the suffering sin has caused everyone in your city, province, nation, and the world. Now try to imagine the accumulated grief that sin has caused throughout the centuries since creation. Is it any wonder that the weight of all this sin began squeezing the life out of Jesus on the night He was called to bear it? (Matthew 26:36-44). The next day, even His beloved Father would forsake Him. No other suffering can compare.

Sin put Jesus to the ultimate test. But His love endured it, His strength bore it, and His power overcame it. Thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection, we know beyond a doubt that sin will not and cannot win.

Christ’s empty tomb guarantees our victory over sin and death.Click To Tweet

The empty tomb of Jesus shows us that sin is no longer our master and that we are no longer slaves to its fear and shame. Paul says in Romans 6:14:

For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

In Romans 6 Paul connects the events of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the foundation for the reality of the spiritual transformation that have taken place in our lives after our decision of believing and confessing that Jesus is our Lord, being our experience of baptism the proof and testimony of that. In Romans 6:4 he writes:

We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

All this shows us that the salvation that Jesus brings is complete. Sin cannot win and our faith in Jesus’ victory cannot fail.

Listening Prayer: “Lord Jesus, what are the lies that I’ve been believing about myself that won’t allow me to enjoy your victory? Please help me to identify them and stop believing them. I’m victorious in You, Jesus.”

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December 20 2017

God’s Glory & Service: The Goal of our Lives

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This year, in our church, for a total of sixteen Sundays, we managed to cover the 433 verses that compose the most relevant and important epistle of the New Testament, Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans. I invite you to visit our Church’s website (click here) and listen to the messages again. Since Romans is a book that covers both the doctrine and praxis of our Christian faith, I believe it is a book that every believer should read, study and meditate on.

In this blog post, I would like to ponder with you the verses with which Paul closes his greatest letter of Romans. From verses 17 to 23 Paul stops his greetings to leave a final warning against the false teachers that were provoking divisions and putting obstacles in the way of the growth of many Christians back then. The commandment of Paul to the believers is to simply avoid these kinds of people. These false teachers only pursue the purpose of serving themselves and not Christ. This warning is still valid for us the church of the 21st century. In an era where communication has expanded to every place, at a time where anyone can use a computer or cell phone to present any message or doctrine to the world and spread it everywhere, we Christians should be alert and wise about what we are consuming to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our spirits.

The mark of the true servant of Christ, Paul points out, is not his eloquence or charisma but his love and service to Jesus Christ. The true servant of Jesus does not seek to be served but seeks to serve others. In the following verse, Paul then commands the church in Rome to be wise and be alert and “to be innocent as to what is evil” (v. 20).

'The true servant of Jesus does not seek to be served but seeks to serve others.'Click To Tweet

Then Paul, guided by the Holy Spirit, gives to the believers in Rome and us here and now, one of the most powerful promises of victory over the enemy that we can find in Scriptures: The God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet. Because of this promise of victory, believers can burst out in praise and worship declaring that only God is wise and worthy of glory, through his son Jesus Christ, forever and ever, amen. God’s glory is then the goal of our lives and the joy of our hearts.

December 15 2017

Church: A Place for Encouragement and Hope (Romans 15)

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I love the last chapters of the book of Romans since these chapters offer to us a glimpse of the kind of person apostle Paul was. Frequently, I imagine Paul as a really approachable, humble and friendly person. Someone that is always looking for opportunities to present the Gospel of Jesus in a relational way. The last chapters of Romans teach us that the Gospel is 100% relational. It is something that we ought not to only enjoy but share with others.

In the first 13 verses of Romans 15 Paul continues explaining how Christians should treat each other. In these verses, Paul explains to us the importance of helping each other bearing our burdens, the vitality of a church where we seek in every moment the opportunity to build each other up. The key to this, explains Paul, is Christ himself. He gave us the model that we should follow, never pleasing himself but looking to please always the Father and those He gave Him.

I believe this kind of behavior is something rare in today’s society where it seems that everyone is submerged into an individualistic and self-centered lifestyle. But we the Church are just different. I believe that in this time and season the most relevant and significant mark of the church would be not its prosperity, or facility, or cultural popularity but the unity and sense of community of those who form it. The Church is a body, not an institution, a people and not a business modeled structure. The Church is the place where God decided to put us.

' I believe that in this time and season the most relevant and significant mark of the church would be not its prosperity, or facility, or cultural popularity but the unity and sense of community of those who form it.'Click To Tweet

As we read Romans we realize the importance of the Church. And we are called to be an active part of it loving and sharing our lives with others. Romans 15 shows us that it is in his Church where Jesus poured out the encouragement and endurance we need to have hope and be resilient against the constants attacks of this world and the enemy. Take a moment to thank God for his Church and rejoice with other believers in what God is doing and will do with us.

December 5 2017

Faith, Love and Mutual Edification (Romans 14:20-23)

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In the final verses of Romans 14, the apostle Paul continues to emphasize the importance of unity in the community of believers, as well as their shared responsibilities, over our freedom and individual rights. The following are the key points from the last part of the chapter that I want to share with you:

The Work of God (a.k.a. the Church) and its continuing growth in unity, love, and holiness, is more important than my ideas of how things need to be done or how to live out my faith (v. 20).
My brother in Christ is more important than any of my liberties. I will not say anything and I will not do anything that could make him stumble and fall (v. 20-21).
There are things that I need to keep between God and myself. I need to accept that there are situations where the best thing I could do is to keep my mouth shut (v. 22). (I encourage you to read and meditate on James 1:19.)
I need to cultivate my faith and convictions based on the Word of God to never act on doubt and unbelief. That’s just a type of hypocrisy. And I need to understand where my actions and behavior come from. If it doesn’t come from faith, then it will become just sinful (v. 23).

As we see in these verses, faith is the key. Both faith, hope, and love must go hand in hand in our Christian life. Our faith in Jesus, the hope of his prompt return and the love that He has poured into our hearts and through which we can love others. Ask the Holy Spirit this week for different opportunities in which you can show the love of God to another person.