Romans 5: 9-11

The Ruach-Spirit of Adonay (the Lord) YHVH is upon me,
because YHVH has anointed me to bring Basar (gospel-good tidings) to the afflicted…. to grant to those who mourn in Zion - to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of YHVH, that he may be glorified. Isaiah 61:1a, 3 RSV

...a garland instead of ashes....
This phrase has deeply affected me. All my hard work to build something beautiful in my life, to affect the lives around me with beauty, has burned out resulting in nothing but a hand-full of ashes, leaving me dirty as they slipped through my fingers, making filth on everything and everyone I touch.

...beauty for ashes.... nkj
My hands are clean, but not by my effort, not by the same kind of washing that Pilot tried to cleanse his hands of, that blood that cleansed me (Matthew 27:24) . My acceptance from YHVH (God) came by the blood of Y'shua (Jesus). It is the same blood that filled Pilots heart with fear that filled my heart with shalom, with peace. That blood is my assurance of salvation when the wrath of YHVH is released upon the earth. By that blood I have been reconciled to YHVH.

What is reconciliation? In Greek it is a compound word; kata (meaning intense) + allasso (to change). The intense change is redemption, my sin is exchanged for the shalom of YHVH. The justice of YHVH did not allow my sinful self to come near Him. My raw sin made me His enemy and I was helpless to do anything about it, try though I might. But YHVH was not helpless. He sent his beloved, willing Son, Y’shua ha Mashiach, to die for me, for you, to pay the price of sin, to open the way of relationship with YHVH! I was changed, YHVH stayed the same. You know about Y’shua-Jesus, that he did not stay dead (Romans 1:4). YHVH raised him to life. His death was my reconciliation, his life is my assurance of shalom-peace when the rest of the world knows only wrath because, like Pilot, they tried to wash their own hands. I know the joy of YHVH, he is my rejoicing!

Personal study of ROMANS 5: 9-11

Romans 5: 6-8

Would you be willing to give your life for someone else?

If a stranger needed your heart, what would you require of them in order to give it? Would they need to be a good citizen? Maybe that isn't enough. Would they need to have your values? That might not be enough either. How about someone you have loved and they had given you everything you ever hoped for. Would that be enough to donate your beating heart to that soul? Maybe that would be enough. Love might be enough. Maybe not.

How about for a reprobate, someone who despises your name, a person who stands against everything you stand for. Would you give your heart for that person? That is exactly what an apparent stranger did for you. Did you know that? When you were too weak from the pleasure of a dark life, when you did not even want to choose to be a good citizen, never mind a religious nut, that is when you were offered a new heart. YHVH-God did not love us because we were good, or even because we lived our lives within the boundaries of religion. He loved us when we were as attractive as the bathroom garbage pail during "that time of the month". When we were drunk with sin and helpless to respond in anyway but an offensive way, he loved us and offered us his heart in the beating chest of Y'shua-Jesus.

How much does YHVH love us? Do the math. Take the base unit (sinners), multiply times all the rejection he knew (and knows) and it will equal you, the one he gave his heart for.

Personal study of ROMANS 5:6-8

Romans 4:13-15

4:13-15 The promise to Abraham and his descendants, that they should inherit the world _{Note: not the Land}, did not come through the Torah but through the righteousness of a’men. ¹⁴ If it is the adherents of the Torah who are to be the heirs, a’men is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the Torah brings wrath, but where there is no Torah there is no transgression. 

What is a promise? 

When YHVH-God tells you that something is truth you can depend on it because of who he is, not because of how you live or what you do to receive the promise. YHVH enters into a legal agreement with you (covenant), and that covenant depends completely on him keeping his word. What then is your part to the covenant? Must you act a certain way? Promise to avoid some actions or embrace others?

The moment you see the covenant of YHVH as being dependent on yourself, on what you do, what you will gain is not the promise, but the wrath of YHVH because you WILL fall short of the required ideal. You do have a part in this covenant, it is to Amen the Word of God. This means that you stand in faith.When I say you "amen the Word" I'm not talking about the words in a book, I'm talking about the Word made flesh, Y'shua ha Mashiach- Jesus who is the Christ. Follow him in ?The Way."

Personal study of ROMANS chapter 4: 13-15

Romans 4:1-5

 4:1 What then shall we say about Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh? ²For if Abraham was justified _accepted by mitzvoth-works, he has something to boast about, but not before hwhy. ³For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed hwhy, and it was reckoned (credited) to him as righteousness." (Gen15:6)  ⁴Now to one who works, his wages are not reckoned (considered to be) as a gift but as his due. ⁵And to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies (accepts) the ungodly, his a’men is reckoned (considered to be) as righteousness.

You work hard for what you have. There is never enough to assure the life you desire. You wonder sometimes if your boss even knows you exist. Someone gives you a gift and you experience joy. The gift is acknowledgement that you not only exist, but your life has value.

So it is with mitzvoth (works). You can go down your personal check-list of do's, you can be a pillar in your community and kid yourself into believing that your work is valuable to the community so surly you are valuable to YHVH (the LORD). Yet you feel fear when you read Matthew 7:21-23.

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter.  Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'  "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.' 

 Then there are the ungodly, those we like to look down our nose at, as we assure ourselves that we are not like them. Those the church hides their daughters from. Those who are helpless to earn their way to heaven and must trust the gift given, Y'shua ha Machiach (Jesus who is the Christ). Those who say "amen" to the Word instead of "doing", those who celebrate life instead of chasing it. Those who love the giver of the gift are those who are known by YHVH and welcomed into the arms of Heaven.

Personal study of ROMANS chapter 4: 1-5

Romans 3:27-31

3:27 Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On the principle of mitzvoth-works? No, but on the principle of a’men. ²⁸For we hold that a man is justified (acceptable) by a’men apart from mitzvoth-works of Torah. ²⁹Or is hwhy the Elohim of Jews only? Is he not the Elohim of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, ³⁰since hwhy is one; and he will justify (accept) the circumcised on the ground of their a’men and the uncircumcised through their a’men. ³¹ Do we then overthrow the Torah by this a’men? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the Torah.

Faith is amen. Amen is standing firm on the Word. The Word is Torah.

If Torah observance is a matter of "be" not "do" then the key to Torah observance is keeping my gaze on Y'shua-Jesus. Can it be that simple? Are their habits and traditions to do in living "The Way"? The frustrating answer is keep your eyes on Y'shua. It is also the answer of Joy. Keep your eyes on Y'shua. Anything I can brag to you about is eliminated. There is no mitzvoth (work) I can do that gives me or you any assurance in The Way of Life. Stand firm (be). That is Torah observance. The first step on The Way is something you cannot do; you must be born again.

Personal Study of Romans, chapter 3:27-31

Romans 3:21-26

3:21 But now the righteousness of hwhy has been manifested apart from Torah, although the Torah and the prophets bear witness to it, ²²the righteousness of hwhy through a’men in Mashiach Y’shua for all who believe. For there is no distinction; ²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of hwhy, ²⁴they are justified (acceptable) by his /j (Chen- kindness) grace as a gift, through the redemption (liberation) which is in Y’shua HaMashiach, ²⁵whom hwhy put forward as an expiation (payment of penalty) by his blood, to be received by a’men. This was to show hwhy 's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies (accepts) him who has a’men in Y’shua.

Romans 3:21-26 are probably the grandest words of the book of Romans. Righteousness; a requirement for believers, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. How to attain righteousness is the question.

If Torah (the Law) is a handbook, a how-to for righteous living, then we are doomed. Torah gives an awareness of sin with its sense of guilt. Guilt does not bring righteousness. It turns out that Torah is not of book of "do" but a book of "be". (1 Peter 1: 15-16) The righteousness is YHVH's. He sent me a hero to liberate me from slavery to sin. Liberation is a gift to be accepted (never earned).

Here is where Torah comes in, it testifies of Passover, the blood payment of an innocent for the guilty. The washing of sin (not the suppression of sin through rules), the REMOVAL of guilt. The realization that YHVH is my righteousness. Faith in Y'shua declares it. Every time I stand firm in Messiah I declare that YHVH is Righteous, even in this modern era. Joy!

Personal study of Romans.

Romans 3:9-20

3:9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all; for I have already charged that all men, both Jews and Greeks, are under the power of sin, ¹⁰as it is written:

"None is righteous, no, not one;

 ¹¹ no one understands, no one seeks for hwhy.

¹² All have turned aside, together they have gone wrong;

no one does good, not even one."

¹³ "Their throat is an open grave,

they use their tongues to deceive."

"The venom of asps is under their lips."

¹⁴ "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness."

¹⁵ "Their feet are swift to shed blood,

¹⁶ in their paths are ruin and misery,

¹⁷ and the way of peace they do not know."

¹⁸ "There is no fear of hwhy before their eyes."

3:19 Now we know that whatever the Torah says it speaks to those who are under the Torah, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to hwhy. ²⁰For no human being will be justified (accepted) in his sight by works of the Torah, since through the Torah comes knowledge of sin.

What is a fool? Y'shua-Jesus said that we are not to call a person who does dumb things a fool (Matthew 5:21-22). The Scripture specifically says that a fool is someone who says in their heart, "There is no God". Why is that important? In Hebrew, the word for heart is bl "leb," a picto-graph for the shepherd’s house. Fools are often very religious. They can be Torah observant to the extreme. They are careful to do the good works. The problem is they do it apart from God, which makes their whole life a dance with death. The words they say, the fellowship they keep, the things they do are all about death. Anyone dazzled by their lifestyle will put themselves in submission to the service of death.

There is a way of escape. It is through the blood of Y'shua ha Mashiach. (Jesus who is the Christ) The walking dead, the religious crowd, go the easy way. The way of Y'shua is difficult, like a steep, narrow path leading to life. How is that path found? It is found in the Word of God but the Word is not a "how to" manual, it is a person to trust. Don't be a fool. Call on the name of YHVH, walk with His Son Y'shua, be comforted and helped by their Ruach (breath, spirit). Keep your eyes on the author and finisher of our Amen (agreement with the Torah).

Personal study of ROMANS 3:9-20