The One Year Bible- July 19, 2006

Greetings from beautiful but HOT San Carlos Mexico. I am on vacation here in Mexico, but don't worry, I am not really working hard. I am really relaxing. Doing this study is relaxing in itself. We had a beautiful drive across the desert today and after being in Alaska last week, it was really a different slice of God's creation. On to the study....

Where We Have Been

The Old Testament
I will admit that this weeks readings were not too interesting. Mostly a bunch of lists and numbers. A few things did jump out at me. Fist of all was the repeated mention of the Davidic Covenant that YAHWEH had made with the family of David. This was to last forever but it came to an earthly end. We all know the story that Jesus is the fulfillment of that covenant. I also thought that it was cool to read about the six fingered man. It is not too often you hear about them. One last thing that jumped out was the fact that David was the one who made the plans for the temple and gave them to his son Solomon. I am not sure if this is idealized history but it is in the Bible and I believe it.

The New Testament
WOW!! Where to begin? There are many, many books written about Romans and I do not intend to add to the list by using this blog. But I would be remiss if I did not touch on the big theological themes in the book. First of all it is important to remember that Romans reads like a legal court document. Paul is serving as the lawyer who representing faith in Jesus and he is defending his beliefs to a particular group of people at a particular time in history. I do not believe, as others do, that this book contains all that is needed to be a Christian. (i.e. there is no mention of holy communion). But I do believe that this book contains some of the most important insights into the Faith. First of all, Paul sets up his case by setting out the argument that everyone is a sinner. There is no one who does right. We are all scumb, even those who think they are doing what is right (those who follow Jewish Law). God is also a God who shows no favoritism. He hates all sin no matter who does it. Paul brings up the character of Abraham because he is one of the biggies to the Jews. He is like a superhero to them. If anyone deserved to be saved it was Abraham, right? But what does Paul say makes Abraham a righteous man? Was it is accomplishments, or his attitude, or the fact that he was circumcised? NO! In fact Abraham is declared righteous in Genesis 15 and he is then circumcised in Genesis 17. Abraham was justified by faith, apart from works of the law. We too are justified the same way. We do not magically become Christians by being baptized. We become Christians by faith!! Don't get me wrong here, baptism is important and is powerful, but it is not some pill that is taken or hoop to jump through in order to get "in". That was Paul's point. There is nothing that we do! When we try to earn our own way, or believe that we have some part in this process we get it all mucked up and we forget that this is an action of God and not us. Because we are in this great dilemma, God sent Jesus to us to be a sacrifice for us so we could be saved. It is all passive (by the way almost all of the Greek verbs that describe what we do or become of us are in the passive case). Paul says it way better than I, "Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19 NLT).

Psalms
One quick thing here. Did you notice that we read from Romans 3 that quoted from Psalm 14 on the 16th and then we read Psalm 14 on the 18th? How cool was that!!!

I will give myself one break this week and let you work on what is coming up next week in the readings.

Remember I will be posting next weeks study on Thursday since I will be traveling next Wednesday. See you all soon.