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Subject 9 : Romans (Commentaries on the Book of Romans)
[Chapter 7-2] The Gist of Paul’s Faith: Unite with Christ after Being Dead to Sin (Romans 7:1-4)
(Romans 7:1-4)
“Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another--to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God.”
Have you ever seen an entangled bundle of yarn? If you attempt to understand this chapter without knowing the truth of Jesus’ baptism in which Paul the Apostle believed, your faith would only be in a greater state of confusion than before.
Paul says in this chapter that because everyone is utterly sinful before the Law of God, one can go to Jesus Christ and be born again only after dying a spiritual death.
The truth that Paul came to realize
Romans 7:7 states, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law.” Paul continues, “For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, ‘You shall not covet.’” Moreover, he adds, “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.” Paul realized that he had been violating all of the 613 commandments of God. In other words, he was no more than a mass of sin who could not do anything but commit sins, because he was a descendant of the first man Adam, was brought forth in iniquity, and was conceived in sin by his mother.
Everyone who is born into this world sins, starting from his very birth to his death. They are thus incapable of keeping God’s commandments. How could these masses of sin keep all the 613 commandments and the Law of God? Only when we recognize that we are sinners before the Law of God can we go to Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God, and come to the realization that we can finally be delivered from sin through Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ became the righteousness of God. He brought us this righteousness of God through His baptism by John and His blood on the Cross. We must therefore all know and believe in God’s righteousness. The reason as to why we must believe in Jesus is because this righteousness of God is found in Him.
Do you know and believe in God’s righteousness? God’s righteousness is the secret that is hidden in the gospel of water and the Spirit. This secret is all contained in the baptism that Jesus received from John at the Jordan River. Do you want to know this secret? If you want to believe in this truth, you will get the righteousness of God through your faith.
Before we came to know about God’s Law and commandments, it seemed as if we were not sinners, even though we had committed sin on a daily basis. But after we started attending church, we came to realize that we were indeed very sinful, and that we would reach spiritual death because of the sins revealed in us. Thus, in order to lead souls to Jesus Christ, Paul the Apostle recollected his past days when he falsely believed by having misunderstood God’s Law and commandments.
Here is an example that will help you understand the role of the Law of God. I am holding the Bible right now. If I hide something of great importance between the leaves of this Bible saying, “Don’t ever try to look inside this book to find out what’s hidden in it,” and then leave it here on the table with you for a while, how will you react? The moment you hear my words, you’ll feel a desire to find out what’s hidden in that Bible, and as a result of this curiosity, you would violate my instruction. The very moment you wonder to yourself about what might be in hidden in that Bible, you will have no other choice but to find out. But had I not ordered you to never look into the Bible, you would have never felt the temptation. Likewise, when God commands us, the sins that had been latent in us will manifest themselves according to the circumstances.
The Law that God has given to the mankind has the role of revealing sin in people’s hearts. He did not give it to us so that we could keep and follow it; rather, the Law was given to us in order to reveal our sins and thus make us sinners. We will all perish if we do not go to Jesus Christ and believe in God’s righteousness that is found in the baptism that Jesus received from John and the blood that He shed on the Cross. We should bear in mind that the role of the Law is to bring us to Christ and to help us believe in God’s righteousness through Him.
This is why Paul the Apostle testified, “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire” (Romans 7:8). Through the Law of God, Paul the Apostle showed us what the basic fundamentals of sin are. He confessed that in his fundamentals he had been a sinner, but that he came to have eternal life by believing in the righteousness of God given by Jesus Christ.
Paul’s lamentation and faith
Paul thus said, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)
Paul acknowledged the fact that even he, who possessed God’s righteousness, still sinned, and that as such, God’s righteousness was even more urgently needed not only for him but also for the rest of the mankind.
We should obtain the righteousness of God by correctly knowing the secrets hidden in the baptism that Jesus received and believing in it. You and I should know and believe in God’s righteousness found in Christ’s baptism and His blood on the Cross. Only then can our souls and flesh, which have no other choice but to sin, be delivered from our sins. We must not forget the fact that Christ’s baptism and His blood on the Cross fulfilled God’s righteousness.
Those who do not know the righteousness of God can only remain as sinners in the end, however hard they may try to keep His Law. We must realize that God’s Law was not given for us to keep them. But legalists do not realize that the secret of redemption lies in the “baptism” that Jesus had received along with His blood on the Cross. As a result of this, they misunderstand God’s Law by thinking that it was given to them to obey, and they keep on living in confusion. But we must recognize our sins through the Law and live by our faith in God’s righteousness. We must not turn against this righteousness of God to pursue our own righteousness. Rather, we must believe in the righteousness of God fulfilled by the baptism of Christ and His blood on the Cross. We need to, in other words, learn to give thanks to our Lord, who has fulfilled God’s righteousness.
This is why Paul, looking at his own flesh, initially cried out, “O wretched man that I am!” but still gave thanks to God through Jesus Christ. The reason Paul made this confession was because the more he had sinned, the more wholly did Jesus’ baptism and His blood on the Cross fulfill the righteousness of God. We, too, are able to shout in joy and victory, because we have been saved by our faith in Jesus Christ, even as we also live difficult lives between the law of the flesh and that of God’s righteousness. The faith Paul had was one that believed in the baptism of Jesus Christ and in His blood on the Cross. This is how Paul came to dwell in his faith in the righteousness of God, and by believing in this righteousness of God, he could become the one who offered praises to Him.
In Romans chapter 7, Paul talks about his wretched state in the old times, in contrast to his later victorious faith in God’s righteousness. Paul’s victory of faith was because of his faith in this righteousness of God.
“Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives?” (Romans 7:1).
The climax of chapter 7 is found in verses 24 and 25. Paul wrote, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 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.”
In Romans chapter 6, Paul talked about the faith that leads us to be buried and resurrected in union with Christ. By uniting ourselves with His baptism and His death on the Cross, we can attain this faith.
Paul realized that he was a wretched man, whose flesh was so insufficient that he broke the Law of God not only before he met Jesus but also kept breaking it even after his encounter with Jesus. He thus lamented, “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” He then concluded that he could be delivered from the body of death by believing in the righteousness of God, saying, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul was set free from the sins of the flesh and mind by believing in God’s righteousness through Christ and being united with Him.
Paul’s final confession was, “So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin” (Romans 7:25). And at the beginning of chapter 8, he confessed, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:1-2).
There were originally two laws given by God: the law of sin and death and that of the Spirit of life. The law of the Spirit of life saved Paul from the law of sin and death. It meant that by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross, which took away all his sins, he united himself with Jesus and was saved from all his sins. We must all have the faith that unites us with the Lord’s baptism and His death on the Cross.
Paul confessed in Romans chapter 7 that he was previously set to be condemned under the Law, but through Jesus Christ, he came to be delivered from this condemnation. As such, he could serve God through the Holy Spirit, who dwelled in him.
The truth Paul realized
Paul confessed, “Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed, I would not have known what sin was except through the law” (Romans 7:7). He could not have known covetousness unless the Law said, “You shall not covet.” Paul explained the relationship between the Law and sin, saying, “But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire.” This means that human hearts are fundamentally full of sin. From the moment people are conceived in their mother’s wombs, they are conceived in sin, and will be born with the twelve kinds of sins.
These twelve kinds of sins are adultery, fornication, murder, theft, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. Everyone commits these sins until they die. How can anyone in the world obey the Law and commandments of God when he/she is born into this world with these twelve sins? The very moment when we hear the words of the Law and the commandments that tell us what we “should” or “should not do,” sin starts to act in us.
When we did not know the Law and the commandments of God, the sins within us were quietly asleep. But after hearing the commandments, which told us what to do and what not to do, these sins came out and made us sin even more.
Whoever is not born again or does not believe in and understand the truth of the water and the Spirit has sin in him. This sin, having become active by the words of the commandments, then produces even more sins. The Law, which tells people what to do or what not to do, is like a trainer that tries to tame sin. However, sin goes against God’s commands and disobeys them. When a sinner hears the commandments, the sins within his/her heart are activated, leading him/her to commit even more sins.
We can realize through the Ten Commandments that we have sin inside us. The role of the Law is thus to reveal the sins inside our hearts, make us realize that God’s commandments are holy, and to awaken us to our sinfulness. At our fundamentals, we were born with the covetousness to have greed over everything that God has created, including properties or partners that are not ours. So, the commandment that states, “Do not covet,” tells us that we were born sinners and were destined to go to hell from the day of our births. It also shows us the imperative for the Savior, who fulfilled the righteousness of God.
That is why Paul confessed that sin took the opportunity by the commandment to produce in him all manners of evil desire. Paul realized that he had been a great sinner who broke the good commandments of God, for he was originally born sinful and was with sin before believing in God’s righteousness.
When we look into chapter 7, we find out that Paul the Apostle was very spiritual, had an extensive knowledge of the Bible, and had great spiritual understanding and experiences. He clearly knew through the Law that there was sin within him, which with the commandments produced all manners of evil desire. He came to know that the Law of God had the role of revealing sins within him. As these sins revived, he also confessed that the commandment, which was to bring life, brought him death.
How is your faith? Is it like Paul’s? Isn’t there sin in your heart whether you believe in Jesus or not? If so, that means you still do not know God’s righteousness, have not received the Holy Spirit, and are a sinner who is destined to go to hell to be judged for your own sins. Do you admit these facts? If you do, then believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, in which the righteousness of God is revealed. You will be saved from all your sins, gain the righteousness of God, and have the Holy Spirit come upon you. We must believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived Paul
Paul the Apostle said, “The commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me” (Romans 7:10-11). Sin, in other words, deceived Paul by taking advantage of the commandment. Paul believed in the commandment that was truly good and just, and yet the twelve kinds of sin were alive and festering in his heart. This meant that he had been deceived by sin because he could not understand the purpose of God’s commandments.
At first, Paul thought that God gave the Law for him to obey it. But later, he realized that the Law was not given to be obeyed, but to reveal the sins within people’s hearts, along with the holiness of God, and to make unbelievers be judged by God. That is how Paul thought he was deceived by sin, since he did not understand God’s commandments and Law correctly. Most people today are also deceived in the same way.
We must realize that the reason God gave us the commandments and the Law was not for us to obey them, but for us to realize our own sins and reach God’s righteousness by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. But since we try to live according to the Law with our sins, we end up revealing our sinful nature.
So, a sinner realizes through the Law that even though the Law is holy, he/she does not have any power or the capacity to live a holy life. In that moment, he/she becomes a sinner who has no choice but to be sent to hell by the Law. But sinners who do not believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit keep on thinking that God gave them the Law for them to obey. They keep on trying to obey the Law, but they will deceive themselves and fall into destruction in the end.
Those who are not born again by remaining ignorant of the righteousness of God commit sin and then try to be forgiven by offering prayers of repentance. In the end, however, they come to realize that they misunderstood the purpose of God’s Law and have deceived themselves. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, has deceived them. The Law of God is holy, but the sins within them instead lead them to death.
Paul said, “Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful” (Romans 7:12-13). Those who understand this truth realize their need for God’s righteousness, and hence, believe that the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the real truth. A person who believes in the gospel of the water and the Spirit also believes in the righteousness of God. Let us be delivered from all our sins and reach the holiness of God by believing in His righteousness. I wish for all of you to be blessed by this gospel.
How were the flesh and mind of Paul?
Paul was full of the Spirit and had a deep understanding of the Word of God. However, he spoke of his flesh in the following words: “For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me” (Romans 7:14-17). He said that he committed sin because he was carnal by nature. Since he was carnal, he saw himself seeking after the desires of the flesh, even though he wanted to do good.
Paul thus realized, “I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into capacity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:22-23). This is why he lamented over his flesh, crying out, “O wretched man that I am!” (Romans 7:24) Even after Paul was born again, he was still distressed because evil was present within him, though he wanted to do good. When Paul said that evil was present within him, he was referring to his own flesh. He saw another law in his members, warring against the law of the Spirit, making him lose to the flesh, and leading him to commit sins. He could only admit that he had no choice but to be subjected to judgment as he saw his flesh taking control over him to sin. Because Paul, too, had flesh, he lamented over the sins that arose from his flesh.
That is why Paul declared, “O wretched man that I am!” But he also thanked Jesus Christ for fulfilling the righteousness of God. This was because he believed that Jesus came to earth, was baptized, and was crucified to give the forgiveness of sins to all of mankind. He could heartily thank God, for he had the faith that united him with the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ.
Paul knew that when John baptized Jesus, all his sins, as well as the sins of the world, were passed onto Jesus once and for all. He also knew that when Jesus died on the Cross, we all died to sin as well. We must therefore have a united faith together with the truth of the water and the Spirit. Is your heart united with the baptism and blood of Jesus Christ? Have you, in other words, united your heart with the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which fulfilled the righteousness of God? We must have our faith united in the baptism that our Lord received from John and the blood that He shed on the Cross. It is very important for us to have united faiths because uniting with the gospel of the water and the Spirit is to unite with the righteousness of the Lord.
Romans 6:3 states, “As many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death.” This means that by believing in Jesus’ baptism, we have also been baptized with Him, meaning that we have become united into the death of our Lord. That is, by being baptized in unity through faith, we were spiritually baptized into His death. To be united with the Lord is to be united with His baptism and to die in union with His death.
We must therefore believe in and unite with the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross that have fulfilled the righteousness of God. If you do not yet believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which holds the righteousness of God, you are not united with the baptism of Jesus and His death. And it is in this gospel that the righteousness of God has been revealed.
If our hearts do not unite with the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross, our faith is merely theoretical and useless. Unite yourself with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross and believe in them. That is how we should believe. A theoretical faith is useless. What good is a nice house, for example, if it is not yours? To make the righteousness of God ours, we must know that the purpose for Jesus’ baptism was to wash away our sins, and that His death on the Cross was for the death of our flesh. Through our faith in the righteousness of God fulfilled by our Lord, we must be redeemed once and for all and walk in the newness of life.
Through your faith thus united with the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, the righteousness of God will actually become your own. We must unite with the baptism and death of Jesus, for if we do not, our faith would mean nothing.
“O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) This is not just Paul’s lamentation, but also that of you and I, as well as all those who are still separated from Christ. He who will deliver us from this distress is Jesus, and it can be resolved only by believing in the Lord, who was baptized, crucified, and resurrected for us.
Paul said, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” This shows that Paul united himself with the Lord. We must believe that if we unite and have faith that the Lord saved us from our sins through His baptism and blood, we will be forgiven and receive eternal life. All your sins will be passed onto Jesus Christ when you believe in the baptism of Jesus with a united heart. You will have died and be resurrected with Him after acquiring a faith in union with His death on the Cross.
Jesus started His ministry on earth at the age of thirty. The very first thing He did on His mission was to wash away our sins by being baptized by John the Baptist. Why was He baptized? It was for Him to bear all the sins of mankind. Therefore, when we united our hearts with the righteousness of God, carried out by Jesus, all our sins were actually passed onto Jesus through His baptism. All our sins were transferred to Jesus and washed away once and for all.
Our Lord actually came to the world and was baptized to bear all our sins and died to pay their wages. Jesus said to John just before He was baptized, “It is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). “All righteousness” refers to Jesus’ receiving of the baptism, which washed away all the sins of mankind, who were destined for hell, and also to His death and resurrection. What is the righteousness of God? According to God’s promises in the Old Testament, Jesus’ baptism and death on the Cross, which saved all sinners, is His righteousness. The reason Jesus came to earth in the appearance of a man and received baptism was to take all the sins of mankind onto Him and wash them away.
Why did John baptize Jesus? It was to fulfill the righteousness of God by taking all the sins of mankind. We, who were baptized into Christ Jesus, were also baptized into His death and now walk in the newness of life, for He was raised from the dead. To have faith in the righteousness of God is to believe and unite our hearts with the baptism of Jesus, His death on the Cross, and His resurrection. It is very important for us to believe that Jesus took all our sins onto Himself when He was baptized. We were buried with Him when He died on the Cross because we were united with Him through His baptism. It is crucial for us to unite our hearts with the Lord by believing in the righteousness of God, even after being delivered from all our sins. We can give thanks to God because we have all died with Christ when He died on the Cross, for He had already taken all our sins through His baptism.
Uniting with Jesus by faith is necessary even after obtaining God’s righteousness through our redemption. After receiving the gift of redemption, our faith can deteriorate into a mere convention. But, if we unite our hearts with the righteousness of the Lord, our hearts will live with God. If we unite with the righteousness of God, we will live with Him, but if we do not, then we cannot help but become irrelevant to Him. If we do not unite with the Lord God and just remain spectators to Him, as if we were admiring our neighbor’s garden, we would become irrelevant to God by being separated from Him. Therefore, we must unite with the Word of the Lord and the righteousness of God in faith.
If we have the faith in uniting with the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross, we are the Christians who are united with the Lord
To believe in the righteousness of God is to unite with the Lord and have the faith to acknowledge His righteousness. Every aspect of our lives should be united with the righteousness of God. That is how we should live. If we do not unite with His righteousness, we will become slaves to our flesh and die, but the very moment that we unite ourselves with the righteousness of God, all our sins will be forgiven. Only when we unite our hearts with the righteousness of the Lord do we become God’s servants. All of God’s works will then become pertinent to us, and, as such, all His works and power will become ours. However, if we do not unite with Him, we will remain irrelevant to His righteousness.
We are infirm and weak in the flesh, just as Paul was, so we must unite our hearts with the righteousness of God. We must unite and believe that Jesus was baptized by John and crucified to save us from all our sins. This is the kind of faith that pleases God and brings blessings to our bodies and souls. If we believe in the Lord’s endeavors with our hearts united in faith, all the promised blessings of Heaven will also be ours. That is why we must be united with Him.
On the other hand, if we do not unite our hearts with the righteousness of God, we won’t be serving Him. Those Christians who do not unite their hearts with God’s righteousness love worldly values more than anything else. They are no different from the unbelievers in the world. They come to realize the value of God’s righteousness only when their possessions, which they love as much as their own lives, are taken away from them. Materials do not have the worth or power to take control over people’s lives. Only the righteousness of the Lord can give us the forgiveness of sins, eternal life and blessings. Materials are not worth our lives. We must realize that if we unite with the righteousness of the Lord, we, as well as our neighbors, will live.
Our hearts must be united in the righteousness of the Lord. We must live by faith and unite our hearts with Christ. Faith that is united with the righteousness of Christ is beautiful. What Paul finally says in chapter 7 is that we should live spiritual lives in union with the Lord.
Have you ever seen anyone who has become a servant of God without his heart being united with His righteousness? There is none! Have you seen anyone who acknowledges the gospel of the water and the Spirit as the necessary condition for the forgiveness of sins without being joined to the righteousness of God? There is no one. No matter how much we know about the Bible, our faith will be useless unless we are joined to the righteousness of God and believe that by believing in the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross, we can be delivered from all our sins.
Even if we have once received the forgiveness of sins and attended church, if we are not united with His righteousness, we are sinners who have no part in the Lord’s plan. Though we say that we believe in God, we would be separated from the Lord if we were not joined to His righteousness. We must be united with the righteousness of God if we are to be consoled, helped, and led by Christ.
Have you received God’s righteousness and the forgiveness of all your sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Do you serve, just as Paul did, the law of God with your mind while your flesh serves the law of sin everyday? We must be joined to the righteousness of God at all times. What will happen if we do not unite ourselves with the righteousness of God? We will be destroyed. But those who are united with God’s righteousness will lead lives that are united with the church of God.
Believing in the righteousness of God means to be joined to the church and servants of God. We can continue to live by faith only when we are united with God’s righteousness everyday. Those who are forgiven for their sins by believing in His righteousness must be united with God’s church everyday. Since the flesh always wants to serve the law of sin, we must always meditate on God’s law and live by faith. We can be united with the Lord if we keep meditating and focusing on the righteousness of God.
We, who believe in the righteousness of God, should unite with the church and servants of God on a daily basis. To do so, we have to always remember the righteousness of God. We have to think about and unite with God’s church everyday. We must meditate on the fact that the Lord was baptized to bear all our sins in our stead. When we are joined to this faith and the righteousness of God, we will have peace from God, and you will be renewed, blessed and empowered by Him.
Unite yourself with God’s righteousness. You will then find new strength. Unite with the baptism of Jesus in the righteousness of God now. Your sins will all be taken away. Unite your heart with the death of Christ on the Cross. You, too, will die with Him. Unite with His resurrection. You, too, will live again. In short, when you unite with Christ in your heart, you will die and be resurrected with Christ, and thus become delivered from all your sins.
What happens if we do not unite with Christ? We may be confused and ask, “Why was Jesus baptized? The only difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the former talks about the ‘laying on of hands’ and the latter talks about baptism. So? What’s the big deal?” A knowledge-oriented or theoretical faith is not an actual faith, and it eventually leads believers to wander away from God.
Those who believe in such manner are like a student who accepts only knowledge from his teachers. If the student really respected his teachers, he would also learn from their noble characters, leadership, or great personalities. We should not accept the Word of God as just another piece of knowledge, but should learn of God’s personality, love, mercy, and justice with our hearts. We should get rid of the idea of trying to learn His Word only as knowledge but unite with His righteousness. To be joined to the righteousness of God leads believers to gain true life. Be united with the Lord! A united faith is the true faith. A theoretical and knowledge-oriented faith is not a united faith, but a shallow one.
“The mercy of God,” as it is sung in a hymn, “is an ocean divine, a boundless and fathomless flood.” When our hearts are united with the righteousness of God, there will be a peace as boundless and fathomless as the mercy of God that has given us His righteousness. But a theoretical and knowledge-oriented faith that is not joined to God is like shallow water. If the sea is shallow, it foams easily, but the magnificent flow of the blue waves, where the ocean water is very deep, is indescribable. But in shallow water, when waves hit the shore, they clot, break, foam, and get jumbled up into a mess. The faiths of those who are not united with God’s righteousness are like these waves in shallow water.
The hearts of those who are united with the Word of God are deep, centered around the Lord, steadfast and unshakable in all circumstances. Their hearts move toward the will of the Most High. But those whose hearts are not joined to His righteousness are shaken easily, at the slightest trouble.
We must have faith that is united with the Lord. We must be joined to the Word of God. We must not be shaken at trivial matters. Those who are united with the Lord have been baptized with Christ, died with Christ, and arose again with Christ from death. Since we no longer belong to the world, we must unite with God’s righteousness to please Him, who has accepted us as the servants of righteousness.
If we unite with the righteousness of God, we will always be at peace, happy, and full of strength because the Lord’s strength will become ours. With His power and blessings made ours, we will live with great blessings. If we are joined to the baptism of Jesus and His death on the Cross by faith, all His power will become our own.
Unite your heart with the Lord. If you unite with the Lord, you will also be united with the church of God. And those who are united with God will unite with each other, doing, in their fellowship, His works and together growing in their faith in His Word.
If we do not unite our hearts with Christ, however, we will lose everything. Even if our faith is as small as mustard seeds, the Lord has already forgiven our sins once and for all. We should be joined to this truth everyday, despite our weaknesses. Only a united faith will let you live and give thanks to God through Jesus Christ.
When we unite with the righteousness of the Lord, we find new strength and our hearts become steadfast. Our hearts become justified when we unite with God’s Word. It is impossible to obtain the determination to serve the Lord by following our own minds. When we unite with the baptism of Jesus, His Cross and resurrection, our faith will grow and stand firmly on the Scripture.
We must unite our hearts with the Lord. Only the faith that is united with Him is the true faith; that which is not united with Him is a false faith.
We give thanks to God for allowing us to unite our faith with the Lord by giving us the baptism of Jesus and His blood on the Cross. We must unite our hearts with Him from this day on, to the last day, when we will meet the Lord again. Let us unite with Him.
We need to unite our hearts with God because we are weak before Him. Paul was also united with God and was delivered from his sins. He became God’s precious servant, who preached the gospel all over the world, by knowing and believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by Jesus Christ, the righteousness of God. Because we are weak, serving the law of God with our minds but the law of sin with our flesh, we can live only by uniting with the Lord.
Have you now learned about the faith that unites with the righteousness of Jesus? Is your faith united with the baptism of Jesus? Now is the time for you to have a united faith that believes in the baptism and the blood of Jesus. Those of you whose faith is not united with God’s righteousness have failed in their faith, in their salvation, and I their lives.
Therefore, the righteousness of the Lord is the indispensable requirement for your deliverance. Being united with the Lord is the blessing that leads all of us to receive the forgiveness of sins and to become God’s children. Receive the righteousness of God by uniting yourself to and believing in His righteousness. The righteousness of God will then become yours, and God’s blessing will always be with you.
Thank God for Jesus Christ!
Paul the Apostle said that he thanked God through Jesus Christ our Lord. He thanked for the righteousness of God received by faith through Jesus Christ. Even after Paul believed in God’s righteousness, he could not but serve God’s law with his mind and the law of sin with his flesh. But since he believed in God’s righteousness with all his heart, his heart had no sin.
Paul confessed that he was already condemned by the Law in Jesus Christ and saved from sin through faith because of God’s righteousness. He also said that those who were facing the wrath of God and the punishment of His Law would still be able to bear the fruit of salvation by believing in God’s righteousness in their hearts. In the hearts of the born-again, there are wishes of the Holy Spirit as well as the wishes of the flesh. But a person who is not born again only has the lusts of the flesh. Therefore, sinners desire only to sin, and what is more, through their natural instincts, they try to beautify their sins before the others’ eyes.
The deacons and the elders who are not born again usually say, “I want to live virtuously, but I don’t know why it’s so difficult.” We must consider why they cannot help but live this way. This is because they are sinners who have not received salvation by believing in God’s righteousness. In their hearts is sin because the righteousness of God is not found in them. But in the hearts of the born-again are both the righteousness of God and the Holy Spirit, but no sin.
When Paul had sin in his heart, he lamented, “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” However, Paul added immediately, “I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25) This means that he received salvation from all his sins by believing in Jesus Christ, who has fulfilled God’s righteousness.
What Paul was trying to say in chapter 7 is that before, when he was religious without being born again, he had not known what the role of the Law was. But he said that the One who delivered him from that wretched state, caused by sin, was Jesus Christ, who had accomplished God’s righteousness. Whoever believes that Jesus Christ fulfilled God’s righteousness to deliver us from sin will be saved.
Those who believe in God’s righteousness serve the law of God with the mind but serve the law of sin with the flesh. Their flesh still leans toward sin because it has not yet been changed, although they have been born again. The flesh desires sin, but the mind, which believes in God’s righteousness, wills to follow God’s righteousness. On the other hand, those who have not received the forgiveness of sins will be led by both their mind and flesh to only commit sin, because in the fundamentals of their hearts are found sin. But those who know and believe in the righteousness of God abide by His righteousness.
We thank God through Jesus Christ, for Christ has fulfilled all of God’s righteousness. Thanks be to the Lord for giving us His righteousness and leading us to believe in it.
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