From Romans 14: Free, Yet Bound

“For if your brother or sister is hurt by what you eat, you are no longer walking according to love. Do not destroy, by what you eat, someone for whom Christ died.” (v. 15)

Here, in Romans 14, you likely find some confidence…and a steep calling.

When it comes to “disputed matters”—what you eat and what you drink and how you observe the rhythms of Kingdom life—you are free. You have the Holy Spirit, you have the Word of God, and you have the high privilege of discerning God’s convictions for your life. Eating and drinking can’t condemn you. The things themselves are not “unclean,” and you are free to hold them, albeit within the boundaries the Bible specifically gives you (for instance, against drunkenness).

You are free.

Yet you are also bound.

The command to love your brothers and sisters in Christ compels you to consider them as you consider partaking. How are you loving the brother who struggles with addiction, with a sin-scarred past, or with a deep moral conviction if you continually imbibe and invite in his company? Are you thinking of your sister’s frailty at least as much as you are thinking about your own freedom? Even as the Gospel frees you from ceremonial laws, it binds you to the law of love.

So enjoy the good gift of freedom in Christ. And love one another. If those are in conflict in your life, reread this chapter—and consider which the Word would rather you give up.

— Tyler

From Romans 13: Wake Up

“Besides this, since you know the time, it is already the hour for you to wake up from sleep, because now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (v. 13)

As much as you would love a little devotion about governments, authorities, and taxes…

…let’s tackle something bigger.

And it can be summarized like this:

O Christian, wake up!

Not “get woke.” And not “pay attention sheeple.”

Simply this:

Wake up!

Live as if the day is dawning and has dawned. Live as if the dark of night—and everything you used to hide there—is over. Live in the light, putting away all of the lust and deceit and hatred and greed that thrived before the Sun broke through.

Can you imagine, when the Light dawns, being found doing what you did in the dark…in the day?

This is the Spirit’s point, given through Paul. Christ has come and will come again. And, whether He comes or you go, the ultimate end of your salvation is nearer now than it ever has been.

So live as if the dawn is directly ahead…

…and wake up.

— Tyler

From Romans 12: A Handbook

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” (vv. 1-2)

Romans 12 is the believer’s handbook.

The thesis is in the first two verses, which can be summarized (imperfectly): Because of God’s mercies, we live—and we live given to Him.

The handing over of our lived days—the sacrifice we’re called to—brings us into an entirely counterintuitive, countercultural, and counter-self mission. When we make our walking-around lives an act of worship, we sacrifice the norm, because we sacrifice the self.

That’s why we live given to the church, mutually submitted and mutually serving. That’s why we live given to purity, actually desiring the good while detesting the evil. That’s why we live given to peace, humbly praying for and hoping for and opening for those who mock, slander, defy, and despise us. That’s why we live given to hospitality, generosity, and humility.

So far as we are able, we pursue this peace—and we trust God to His own sovereign judgment.

It’s a steep calling.

Better keep the handbook handy.

— Tyler

From Romans 11: Beyond us

“Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments and untraceable his ways!” (v. 33)

Should we make the attempt?

Should we study His Word and listen for His Spirit? Should we apply our kinds and our hearts to the exercises of theology, soteriology, and doctrine? Should we aim to understand God’s judgment, God’s mercy, and God’s gracious Gospel?

Yes.

But…

…should we also admit that the mystery of it, the power of it, and the depth of it are beyond us? Should we admit that our own capacity for comprehending His sovereign purpose for grace is extremely limited? Should we admit that He is God—and submit to Him with humility and gratitude and worship?

Also yes.

— Tyler

From Romans 10: Hearing

“So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.” (v. 17)

Y’all remember what they used to tell us in church? Back in the 1900s?

“If you just live your life differently—if you quietly honor God—then people will become curious. They’ll wonder, and they’ll ask, ‘What makes them so different?’”

It’s a cute idea.

And, yes, people of faith and integrity and generosity and hope are generally attractive.

But some of y’all have been waiting thirty years for someone to ask you about “what makes you so different”—and you’ve missed countless opportunities to actually do the thing God uses for their salvation.

Which is TELL THEM.

Romans 10 reminds us that, as with Israel, not everyone who hears will believe. But it also tells us that everyone who believes believes because they heard! Faith comes by hearing, and hearing specifically the message about Christ.

You should keep living to honor Him (obviously). But stop presuming that your cleaned-up life is the only witness they need. They need the witness of your words!

That’s a big ask, I know.

May we remember that it is the singular ask of the Great Commission.

— Tyler

From Romans 9: How badly?

“For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the benefit of my brothers and sisters, my own flesh and blood.” (v. 3)

How badly do you want it?

How deep is your desire to see your family come to Christ? How high is your hope that your friends and loved ones might hear His voice, receive this Gospel, and believe? How far are you willing to go, how much are you willing to give, how clearly are you willing to share, and how patiently are you willing to love—all so they might come out of the darkness and into Jesus’ light?

How badly do you want it?

Paul, when thinking about his Jewish brothers and sisters, revealed an extreme Gospel hope. He said, in effect, that he would give up his own saved life—as in, the life of Christ in him and for him—if only they would believe. Obviously it’s not up to the man, but it remains a stirringly selfless picture of evangelistic passion.

Most of us won’t give up our momentary comfort, our dollars, or even a little bit of our conversational safety to see them saved.

It begs the question, in comparison:

How badly do you want it?

— Tyler

From Romans 8: The Hope

“Now in this hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?” (v. 24)

Just go ahead and bookmark this entire chapter.

Romans 8 is the master text on the sovereignty of God in salvation. By inspiration, the apostle Paul unfolds the Gospel reality, a reality that is wholly rooted in the good and gracious ministry of God in Christ for us.

Was that too wordy? Then try this:

The Good News is the message of hope—and that hope is better than and beyond anything you see in this world.

The world is bent toward condemnation. In Christ, we have the hope of justification.

The world is bent toward satisfying the flesh. In Christ, we have the hope of the Spirit.

The world is bent toward death. In Christ, we have the hope of life, everlasting and undimmed.

The world is bent toward suffering and resignation. In Christ, we have the hope of glorification.

The world is bent toward everyone being his or her best self. In Christ, we have the hope of being shaped for Christlikeness, by grace.

The world is bent toward earning it. In Christ, we have the hope of God’s salvation gift, freely given.

I don’t hope for what I see here. I hope for all of this, which is all of God.

And that’s the heart of the Gospel.

— Tyler

From Romans 7: The War

“For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do.” (vv. 18-19)

Raise your hand if you know the right thing to do.

Now…keep it raised if you are actually doing it.

My guess is that you (like me) experience a little disconnect here. You and I know the things we ought to do, the things our faith confession drives us toward, and the things that are morally pure. The problem isn’t with what we know. It’s with what we do—because we don’t do what we know we ought, and because we are doing what we know we shouldn’t.

Paul, inspired, likens this to a war. It is waged between our minds and, well, our everything else. We have knowledge of the good, which God has given us in His Word, but that knowledge in our heads doesn’t seem to translate to what we do with our bodies.

If that’s you—if temptation peeks through your knowledge of what is right, and you keep stumbling into what is not—know that that is not exactly abnormal. But also know that it is not an excuse. Admitting the reality of our failures (and the grace that covers us) is not permission to succumb to them, when what is asked of us is a continual pursuit of sanctification.

Yet I would urge you to cry out and be comforted, as Paul was: “Who will save us from this body of death?!”

Thanks be to God in Christ, for mercy.

— Tyler

From Romans 6: The Excuse

“What should we say then? Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (vv. 1-2)

Dear Christian,

If you miss the truth of these verses—if you either ignore or irrelevantize them—then you are in danger of nothing less than heresy. You jeopardize the validity of your confession. You damage the faithful witness of the church. And you cheapen the crucifixion of Christ—not in actuality, but in its effect in your own life.

If you keep choosing and excusing sin…

If you lean on a “commit now, confess later” practice…

If you live for the things Christ died for, and remain dead when He would instead give you life…

If your interpretation of “grace” is your excuse…

…then your faith is a thing foreign to the Bible. Your “grace” isn’t Gospel grace. You have missed the point of repentance—which is turning from sin to Him.

Will any of us manage perfect purity? Of course not. (That’s the next chapter.) But should the pursuit of purity, as the response to His great grace, drive us out of sin—and away from excuse-making?

I pray you know the answer.

— Tyler

From Romans 5: Knowing Hope and Knowing Him

“This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (v. 5)

The hope of the Gospel is real, sure, and enduring.

How do you know it?

Because you know Him.

We could easily be accused of discounting the life, work, and presence of the Holy Spirit in us. We pray to the Father, and we testify to the Son—but the Spirit gets lost in our theological shuffle. Yet the Spirit remains our actual, vital, experiential relationship. All the times we are caught up in worship—all the times we sense the presence of Christ—it is actually the Spirit we are knowing, sensing, and experiencing.

And the Spirit assures us: God’s love is real. His hope is valid. His salvation is sure. His life is in us. God in Christ has poured this into our hearts by pouring Himself—the Holy Spirit—into us.

Remember that, and remember Him.

— Tyler

From Romans 4: Fully Convinced

“He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.” (vv. 20-21)

Are you “fully convinced”?

God saves, in Christ. He forgives. He brings you into the family tree. What might otherwise have been narrowed to Israel is instead opened to all who believe, by grace. God saves us, and we receive hope here…and heaven forever. It is so abundantly and incomparably good.

Are you “fully convinced”?

Abraham’s example should convict us: He believed God’s promises—not perfectly, but persistently—even though what was promised was beyond all human reckoning. He was “fully convinced” that God would grow his family, open his wife’s womb, and give him an inheritor in his old age. It was so abundantly and incomparably good…

…and the man believed it.

What is extended to us in Christ, by grace through faith, is even better (and even more stunning). The only barrier between us and it is the matter of belief, of being “fully convinced.”

So…are you?

— Tyler

From Romans 3: Just

“God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.” (v. 26)

Here’s the thing you have to know about your God:

His holiness is unquestioned. His righteousness is undimmed. His Word is unchanging. And His judgment is sure.

It’s possible for that to be muted, if you present the Gospel wrongly. We can make it seem like, in Christ, those truths don’t really matter. We lean into His grace—and away from His right, righteous justice.

But sin—the human sin-condition, and every single sin it comprises—demands justice! The Good News of Christ is this: not that justice is erased, but that is has been satisfied, through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice. We are justified by faith only because He bore God’s justice to the cross.

The Gospel of grace reveals to us a singularly wondrous mercy: God, in Christ, is just…and Justifier.

Don’t mute that.

— Tyler

From Romans 2: Reputations

“You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written: ‘The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.’” (vv. 23-24)

You’re tired of it, same as I am.

Hardly a season passes before yet another church person—a pastor, a personality, a member in a body—strays, is found out, and falls. They’re caught stealing, cheating, and lying. It’s made public. And all of it happened while maintaining a public posture of religiousness.

It’s immensely frustrating. It’s heartbreaking. It’s exhausting.

And, what’s worse, it damages the believing church’s witness to the One True God. The wider world slanders Him because of us.

Every one of us needs to remember that our sin isn’t just about us. Our integrity, morality, and faithfulness drive the credibility of our witness—and we discredit it every time we pose with religion yet harbor unrepentant sin. Sin will be exposed! And, when it is, your religious front will make them see Him wrongly.

So repent! Wrestle your temptations in the Spirit! And let your faith-life be more than a front.

More than just your reputation is on the line.

— Tyler

From Romans 1: Not Ashamed

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.” (v. 16)

If you ever wondered whether the Bible is still relevant in our modern culture, read Romans 1.

Paul, inspired by the Spirit, is introducing what will prove to be the most thorough theological position preserved in the New Testament. He is seeking to strengthen believers he has not yet met, to encourage them as they worship in a complicated context. And he is steering the conversation to the singular, scandalous, specific revelation of Jesus as the Sovereign of our salvation.

On the way, Paul is led to speak plainly (and painfully) about the distorted lives their neighbors are living in lostness. There’s a reason the argument is familiar: We, by the miracle of the Word, see our own neighbors in these verses, too.

That’s…a lot. I mean, so far as introductions go. And when we consider what the Roman church must have considered—the utter incongruity and unpopularity of the Good News and its call to repentance, in their and our culture —it’s enough to freeze you in your tracks.

Which is why Paul tells us this:

“I am not ashamed of the Gospel.”

This is a call to rest in its power, to trust that it saves, and to stay true. It may be tempting to not. But hear the Word. In all that follows, do not be ashamed.

— Tyler

From Mark 16: The Victor

“So the Lord Jesus, after speaking to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.” (v. 19)

The Gospel of Mark has given us Jesus the Teacher. It has given us Jesus the Healer. It has given us Jesus the Authority and Jesus the Giver and Jesus the Prophet.

The Gospel of Mark has given us a thorough picture of Jesus, even up to Jesus the Christ as Sovereign.

How does it end?

With Jesus the Victor.

He is there in heaven, risen and ascended and seated. He is where He promised us He would be, at the Father’s right hand. He is glorified, magnified, and dignified with the name above every name.

Jesus is victorious!

Rest in that. Cherish that. And live for Him, worshiping and serving and telling, for His continued glory.

By grace, we get to know who He is, in the Word. Let it drive you in this world.

— Tyler

From Mark 15: For Us

“And at three Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lemá sabachtháni?’ which is translated, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’” (v. 34)

It’s a feeling you and I have never known and will never know. It’s a reality that sits at the center of propitiation, of atonement, of “Jesus in our place.”

You and I will never know the abandonment of God.

Why?

Because Jesus knew it for us.

He, with the full weight of human sin on His sinless account, took the judgment of the Father. He bore unto death all that disqualifies a man from God’s presence. He carried every separating thing until He was utterly separated by death.

Jesus knew the awful justice that sinners are owed and, with it, the exclusion they should know.

But they—but we—won’t know it.

Because Jesus knew it for us.

— Tyler

From Mark 14: Weak

“Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (v. 38)

Comparatively speaking, so little is asked of a disciple.

The Lord is utterly submitted, utterly burdened, and utterly emptied. His obedience is all the way unto death on a cross in our place.

And, on the same night His Father ordained for Him to bear all of that, so little is asked of His followers:

Pray, and stay alert.

Obviously the human falters here. The flesh falters. Whether it’s those disciples in the garden or it’s you and it’s me, we struggle to really pray, to really hold our hearts attentive. The Lord is among us, and He is enduringly and unfailingly faithful—yet we come up short of even the barest faithfulness.

I don’t have any shortcuts for you here. I don’t have any pithy truism to point you to even a moment of credible faithfulness in the dark. I only have my own admission of the struggle, my own confession of worship and humility in Jesus’ light, and my own hope that He, by grace, would inspire more prayer and attention and integrity than I could ever manage on my own.

May His Spirit inside us be gracious with us, and may we give Him our hearts’ and our minds’ attention.

— Tyler

From Mark 13: The End

“Jesus told them, ‘Watch out that no one deceives you.’” (v. 5)

Do you ever wonder about the end?

About history’s closing act? About tribulation and persecution and desolation? About Jesus’ righteous return, and about the joy and the judgment He will bring?

Honestly, it would be weird if you didn’t wonder about it.

Here’s the thing: There’s a big difference between prayerful pondering and preoccupation. We are meant to be attentive and alert, trusting the authority of the Word while we wait. But there’s a risk: It’s really easy to give the end all of your attention, to troll websites and YouTube videos in search of clues, and to even trust not-Jesus voices as authorities.

Can I just urge you to limit that, to trust Him, and to live with Gospel urgency (rather than looking for secret signs)?

That’s the surest way through every deceiving distraction.

— Tyler

From Mark 12: How to Miss the Point (in Two Easy Steps)

“Jesus spoke to them, ‘Isn’t this the reason why you’re mistaken: you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God?’” (v. 24)

Here’s how you can miss the point (in two easy steps):

First, you discount the Scriptures: If you count the revealed Word of God, given of His Spirit through inspired authors, as something less that, then you’ll end up missing the point of earth and of heaven and of everything in between. You’ll miss that it is His, for His glory, and that we’re meant to worship in His light here and forever.

Second, you discount His power: If you diminish God’s sovereignty (while elevating your opinion), you’ll end up missing the point of the life He gives, by grace. You’ll miss that He saves, that death is not the end, and that we are bound for His all-things-new life.

These are plainly revealed by His words in His Word.

All you have to do to miss it is discount the Bible—and the power of the One who gave it.

— Tyler

From Mark 11: In the Lord’s House

“He was teaching them: ‘Is it not written, My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations? But you have made it a den of thieves!’” (v. 17)

It’s not about checking boxes.

It’s not about satisfying preferences.

It’s not about receiving religious goods and services.

The worship gathering isn’t about any of these things. And, if we slide into that, don’t expect the Lord to leave our furniture in place.

Instead, keep worship in the church purposed for what it has to be about.

It has to be about magnifying the Head of Household’s worth.

It has to be about prayer.

It has to be about welcoming your neighbors and the nations.

Is your church on target—or is it bound to be overturned?

— Tyler