3rd lesson = Jesus came to call the sinners.

Jesus came to call the sinners. = Because He loves each and every one of them.

Why are we sinners? What is sin? Would you know how to describe what sin is?___________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We find the definition of sin in Strong’s Concordance. =>

Strong's Concordance[1]

hamartanó: to miss the mark, do wrong, sin

Original Word: ἁμαρτάνω
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: hamartanó
Phonetic Spelling: (ham-ar-tan'-o)
Short Definition: I sin
Definition: originally: I miss the mark, hence (a) I make a mistake, (b) I sin, commit a sin (against God); sometimes the idea of sinning against a fellow-creature is present.

So the whole humanity is a sinner just because Eve and Adam missed the mark?  Why than are all human beings sinners? Why should we all be under the same condemnation just because Adam and Eve the first couple that God created missed the mark, as for the fact when God said do not eat….? They listened to a different voice that lead them astray and they missed the mark God had for the human being. God had the intention of always having that intimate fellowship with His creation. Being separate from God means to die, now if the parents are spiritually dead they cannot produce live spiritual descendants right? Missing the mark brought separation between the Creator and His creation. We read in Genesis chapter 2 what God had commanded Adam and Eve. Once we are not in God anymore, than we are apart. Being apart means having not the life of God in us anymore.

Would you like to share an incident where you know that you missed the mark and God brought you back to where you should be?__________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

Let’s read: Genesis 2:15-17 KJV.  The death that is written here about is the spiritual death.  And the apostle Paul was referring to this in Romans 5:12-18, and I would like us to read it here so we can understand the context of this message.

Would this sound to you as a proof of love from God to us? ______________________________

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I think God was more than fair what God did for us. Even though the human being missed the market and therefore died spiritually; God himself provided means of giving us the life back, in spite of the fact that we did not deserve it. Please share your opinion about this______________

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Galatians 2:17, how would you describe it you’re your own words? ______________________________________________________________________________

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As I was meditating on this wonderful subject I was looking for verses in the Bible that shows us how many times God makes a point of saying that He loves us and that He wants to save and heal the sick and the sinners. We find lots of verses that talk about it. Even though we missed the mark, we did everything we should have not done; God provided a way of salvation for us – the human being.

Psalm 25:8 – If God did not love the sinner, he would not instruct His way to them to redeem them from their own way.

Psalm 51:13 – David expresses here that he will teach the transgressors God’s way. God provides us with His messengers so we can learn as how to walk in God’s way. This is wonderful.

Ps. 119:176. -

Matthew 9:10 – Jesus did as he taught in a different passage, He went after the lost sheep, and sinners are the lost sheep of the heavenly Kingdom.

Luke 15:1-7 -

Mark 2:17 “On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

The apostle Paul was addressing the church telling them the overall situation of the world without Christ in chapters one and two.  He expresses that fact that he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, and he says it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes in chapter 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.”

In chapter 3 of Romans, verses 1-8; the apostle explains about God’s faithfulness. Verses 9 to 20 he talks about that no one is righteous be themselves, but we need to be set right before God.

Than from verse 21 on he tells us about the righteousness through faith. And let’s read those verses:

Ro. 3:21-23: --   As we can understand by this passage that every human being needs to be made righteous before God. This only happens if we believe what Jesus did for us and accept it as such. We are born spiritually dead.

Romans 3:24-26 --

Today we have brought you a series of verses that show us that we all are sinners, but Jesus comes after us, sends us teachers and shepherds that will take care of us. The Bible makes it clear that we needed a Savior to rescue every sheep that was lost. We are lost sheep without our Lord Jesus, the good shepherd. Jesus says: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jo. 10:11. Today I want to invite you to allow the good shepherd, Jesus, to lead you on the way to heaven.

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[1] http://biblehub.com/greek/264.htm

 

Be blessed as you read.

We will be using the Halley’s Biblical Handbook; to be able to help us along a little bit better on this Journey, so we can state time, periods and occasions where things were written by Paul.

2nd lesson – Why are we sinners?

2^nd lesson – Why are we sinners?

Hello everyone, it is nice to be here one more time to be able to meditate on God’s wonderful Word together. May the peace of the Almighty God be with you as you join us in reading and studying His Word together. Today we would like to take a look a little at the church in Rome, and how the apostle addresses the subject to explain that we all are sinners.

Paul had not been in Rome yet, he arrived there three years after he wrote this letter. The heart (or nucleus) of the Church of Rome probably was formed by the Roman Jews that had been in Jerusalem at the day of Pentecost, according to Acts 2:10. “10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome.” 

In the 28 years since then, many Christians from different parts of the East had, for various reasons, migrated to the capital, including some of the converts themselves and close friends of Paul, (see chapter 16). The martyrdom of Paul and Peter probably occurred in Rome, about eight years after this letter was written.[1] (Halley 2000).

The context of this letter is very rich and Paul starts it by introducing himself to all the members of that church as a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God, (v. 1).

The next thing he tells them is: (v.2 and on)…  “² the gospel he promise beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures ³ regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life^[a] was a descendant of David, ⁴ and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power^[b] by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. ⁵ Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from^[c] faith for his name’s sake. ⁶ And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.”[2]

You and I who are reading this letter that Paul wrote to the Romans, if we are in Christ Jesus, this word is also for us. So, let’s learn from it, amen?  

Based on this fact are you and I descendants of David as well? Are we descendants of Abraham?  _______________________________________________________________________

Paul explains also that his obligation is to teach all the people Jews and gentiles, and that he was not ashamed of it. And he teaches us by this that we should not be ashamed of it either. God loves us, and this whole letter is addressed to show us how God loves us even though we were still sinners when God came to show us love. Romans 5:8: “ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Paul was not ashamed to teach the people around him where ever God sent him. Are we ashamed?

 

How do you feel about witnessing to people in our days? ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

So, our question is today: “Why are we sinners? _____________________________________________________  

What does it mean to be a sinner? _____________________________________________________

 

Paul made an effort to explain to the church why we need a savior, and how everyone can be saved, and why we are sinners.

A universal necessity for a Savior.

Ro. 3:23 ^“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” In chapter 1 of his letter Paul describes to the church the universal sinfulness of mankind. Paul describes in chapter 1:18-32 God’s wrath against mankind. Please check this passage out:

 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%201:18-32&version=NIV

In verse 20 we see that God reveals himself to every human being.

“²⁰ For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. ²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

What is the most important part of this verse?________________________________________

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God’s power and divine nature, has been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. This is a very important statement. God made the universe in such a way that it clearly testifies the fact that He created it. And that we can see and understand God´s invisible qualities. The apostle John writes about something that I believe fits right into this subject. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” (1 Jo. 4:16). If we know and rely on the love God has for us, is because He has revealed it to us; correct? We can only rely on something we have knowledge about. This is the reason why Paul writes this letter to explain to the church why we are sinners, and why we need Jesus.

Chapter 2 Paul explains that there is no difference between Jews and gentiles, meaning that every human being is in the same boat, we all are sinners. We are born in sin; but; since, Jesus came to save us we have an option: we can become saints. Halleluiah.

From the day that Adam and Eve listened to the serpent that deceived them to go after their own way and eat from the tree that they were told not to eat; they fell from the grace of God. To sin means to miss the target, and by doing what they did, Adam and Eve missed the target what God had prepared for all of us. By this, they died spiritually. And now they needed to be brought back to life. God, prepared Jesus, as it says in Hebrews before the foundation of the earth as an offering for you and me to bring us back in the beautiful relationship God planned to have with His people.  

Hebrews 10: 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—I have come to do your will, my God.’”[a] Refers to what is written in Psalm 40:6-8.

Paul was trying to show to the Romans that Jesus was the savior of the world that came to redeem us. And in the next lesson we will continue to study about this wonderful message, we are born in sin; but, we have an option that God himself gave to us through His Son Jesus Christ: we do not need to stay in sin!!! Praise God!!!

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[1] Halley’s Biblical Handbook, Page 607 about the letter to Romans.

[2] http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%201&version=NIV

We are sinners

 

We are sinners

Today I would like to invite you to come along on a journey that we do want to start on a series of devotionals.  The Lord put on my heart a topic that has been on my mind ever since I listened to Charles Price on Living Truth. And he was talking about how the apostle calls us saints. In Romans 1:7 “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He mentioned among other things: At one point the apostle calls the sinners as he refers to the Romans in chapters 3 to 6.

So the question is: “are we sinners or saints”?  ________________________________________

And if we are one or the other, how to we change from one to another? How did we become sinners? How do we become saints? This will be the subject of our devotional as the Lord helps me to find the scripture to talk about it here.

Can you tell us your experience how you changed from be a sinner to a saint? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The objection in this serious is to point out the intent that God had with mankind when he created us in his own image and likeness; and what was it actually that He did want us to be. Now to some of us it is most likely that we think and say: well God wanted us to be His children in love, and from there on it is kind of difficult to describe the rest. Somehow we get stuck in the rout; and do not know how to phrase the rest. With God’s help we will try to go on a journey where we will try to look for some answers.

I find it wonderful that God uses His people like you, me, the apostles and other men and women in the past to talk to us; and to make known His love and His plan towards us and for us. Paul addresses the Romans with this subject, and if you have your Bible with you; please let us take a look at some Scriptures today.

Bible says: “we are sinners”. So the question is were we born sinners? _________________________

Were we created as sinners? __________________________________________________________

God created us in His love, according to His image and likeness. In Genesis we can read that: Genesis 1:26  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

God had a marvelous plane for all of us. But, than the thought might come in our mind: so why than now: “sinners”? Was, this already designed to come out this way? Was this what God had in mind? ___________________________________

And the answer is no, this was not what God had in mind for us to become sinners. It was the consequence of the human’s choice. But, God loves us and He does not want us to be separated from Him through sin, so therefore He brought us the Savior; who makes us saints.   We can be made saints if we follow what the Word of God says, and we do need to live upon the Word of God. The apostle Paul was teaching the Romans. We will be using the Halley’s Biblical Handbook; to be able to help us along a little bit better on this Journey, so we can state time, periods and occasions where things were written by Paul. And in this manual we find the description that Paul was in Corinth, while writing this letter to the Church in Rome. In the year of 57-58d.C.  The apostle Paul was at the end of his third missionary trip and he was planning to go to Jerusalem, taking along the offering that was sent with him, (Rom. 15:22-27). A lady named Phoebe, mentioned in chapter 16:1-2, was going there and Paul sends the letter along with her.  So, in this letter to the Romans, Paul explains many things that we need to learn as well.

The purpose of the Letter to the Church in Rome.

The purpose of the Letter to the Church in Rome was to inform the Christians that he was on his way to visit them. And this was written before God told Paul that he would be a witness for God in Rome; check it out in Acts 23:11. Paul was not certain that he would be still alive in Jerusalem and in Romans 15:31 he makes it clear. “Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there”.  Paul was not favorably received everywhere he went, and so he asks for prayers, in this respect. 

Would you have the boldness and the courage Paul had to go and follow what God said to him, what he was supposed to do?  _____________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________

 

Content of the Letter to the Church in Rome. 

The Jews believed that the Law of Moses was final and decisive as a universal mandatory expression of God’s will for mankind. And Paul goes on to explain how God took us from being justified by the Law to being justified by Jesus before God.  

In our next devotional we will start to address this beautiful subject as how every human being can go from sinner to being a saint. We are looking forward on sharing what God has put in our heart on a weekly bases.

Greetings unto you in Christ Jesus

 Your sister in the Lord

 Antonina Penner