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Hello everyone, this is Ainsley Earhart. Thank you for joining me for episode 32 of this 52 episode podcast series, the Life of Jesus. This episode will pick up in chapter seven of the Letter of Paul to the Romans. In this section of his letter, Paul gives very clear insight into the freedom available through Christ to those who choose to obey and serve him. He focuses on the reality that those who belong to Christ are children of God and have the right to call him Father. Let's listen in as Paul communicates with the believers in Rome all about God's amazing plan of redemption for mankind. More of the life of Jesus next.

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Do you not know, brethren? For I am speaking to those who know the law, that the law is binding on a person only during his life. Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband accordingly. She will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man, she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brethren, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead. In order that we may bear fruit for God. While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law dead to that which held us captive, so that we serve not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit. What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I should not have known sin. I should not have known what it is to covet, if the law had not said, you shall not covet. But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought in me all kinds of covetousness apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. The very commandment which promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Did that which is good then bring death to me? By no means. It was sin working death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal souled under sin. I do not understand my own actions, for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So that it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me that is in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self. But I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, I of myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do, Sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. But those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is Is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed it cannot. And those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh. You are in the Spirit. If in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead, will give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit which dwells in you. So then, brethren, we are debtors. Not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry abba Father, it is the Spirit Himself bearing witness with our Spirit, that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will, but by the will of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all? Will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. Is it Christ Jesus who died? Yes. Who was raised from the dead? Who is at the right hand of God? Who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are being killed. All the day long we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God. God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am speaking the truth. In Christ I am not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen. By race they are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs. And of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, God who is over all, be blessed forever. Amen. But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants. But through Isaac shall your descendants be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants. For this is what the promise said about. This time I will return, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only so, but also. When Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call, she was told, the elder will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? By no means. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So it depends not upon man's will or exertion, but Upon God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills. You will say to me, then, why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will? But who are you a man to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to its molder? Why have you made me thus? Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory? For the vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom he has called not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles, as indeed he says in Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people, and her who was not beloved, I will call my beloved. And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God. And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved. For the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with rigorous and dispatch. And as Isaiah predicted, if the Lord of hosts had not left us children, we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah. What shall we say then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it? That is, righteousness through faith. But that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law, that did not succeed in fulfilling that law? Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone as it is written. Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make men stumble, a rock that will make them fall, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but it is not enlightened. For being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law that everyone who has faith may be justified. Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on the law shall live by it. But the righteousness based on faith says, do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss that is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will will be saved. For man believes with his heart and so is justified. And he confesses with his lips, and so is saved. The Scripture says, no one who believes in him will be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. The same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon all who call upon him. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are men to call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without a preacher? And how can men preach unless they are sent as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who preach good news. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, lord, who has believed what he has heard from us. So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have. For their voice has gone out to all the earth and their words to the ends of the world. Again I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation with a foolish nation. I will make you angry. Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, I have been found by those who did not seek me. I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me, but of Israel. He says, all day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people. I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means. I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thy altars. And I alone am left. And they seek my life. But what is God's reply to him? I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise grace would no longer be grace. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it sought. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened. As it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that should not see and ears that should not hear, down to this very day. And David says, let their table become a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see and bend their backs forever. So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means but through their trespass. Salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous. Now, if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean? Now I'm speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then, as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as first fruits is holy, so is the whole lump. And if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the richness of the olive tree. Do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. You will say, branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief. But you stand fast only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even the others, if they do not persist in their unbelief, will be grafted in. For God has the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree?