Vintage Grace's Podcast

Throughout Romans Paul has been clear that no one is righteous and all are without excuse before God's judgment (1:18-3:20).  The only way to stand righteous before God is by Faith and the Grace of God (3:21-4:25).  Today Paul reveals the “benefits of belief” which start with having peace with God—As believers we’re now marked by confidence (5:1-8:39).  We have the Prosperity of Peace with God.

Paul takes the origin story of the people of God and proves that the way to experience a thriving relationship with God has always been through faith. THEY had faith in God’s promise then, WE have faith in God’s promise now.

The joy of Jesus is for everyone because it occurs by grace through faith alone. Joy comes from trusting in and fully relying on what Christ has done through his life, death and resurrection every moment of every day as we live in community on mission together.  

Paul teaches that faith in Jesus alone is the only basis of our being justified and declared righteous. He shows us that this has been God’s plan from the beginning by pointing to two of the biggest witnesses of the Old Testament.

New Year, Same Vision: Faithfully follow y(our) Rabbi (our Father). Invite others into the journey, start with prayer for His Glory & our Unity, & be ready for action!  The Spirit is moving & lives are eternally being changed!

Why behind the what of PrayerIf you lose your WHY then you lose your WAYThe depth of your WHY determines the length of your WHATWHO > How

Worldly Hope: desire for something- wishing on a star, crossing fingers, sending up empty prayersBiblical Hope: trusting & waiting expectantly and with certaintyWe experience hope by looking for God in our gaps, giving God the entirety of our gaps, and trusting Jesus as the solution to our gaps.

The message of hope in Zechariah is not just for the people of God in antiquity, it means hope for us today. We have hope in the Messiah, God helps us make sense of our past and see him in it, and God gives us a picture of the future that helps us hold onto hope, even in the darkest times.

When we lose our why, we will faithfully lose our way; this is true of Israel and true of me and you. God's grace does not give up on Israel then, or us now and it is His mercy that gives us HOPE.  We are all in the middle of the greatest redemption story of ALL time, and we get the privilege of being used by Him to bring the Kingdom to Sacramento as it is in Heaven.

Israelites regathered and rebuilt after a season of exile. Though we weren’t exiled, we have regathered the past couple years and can learn from the lessons of the Israelites. May we, like them, remember God’s past faithfulness, and may it motivate us to press on in overwhelming seasons. Hold fast to the the truth that He is going to rebuild. The final product is not only worth it, but the process of journeying with Him is for His glory, our good, and a watching world!

God’s justice and His love collide in the cross. God’s righteous demand that sin be punished runs straight into His love for us. The inevitable result of this collision is the death of Jesus, and unity with God for us! Paul gives us 3 implications of what this great love does for us: humility, unification and righteous living.

The righteousness of God, that we heard about in the Old Testament, is now on full display in the person and work of Jesus. None of us are better than any of us and all of us fail to measure up to God's perfect standard. The good news is that God has made us right with Him through Jesus, so that everyone would know that our standing with God depends on faith alone.

No one is able to earn God’s love on their own. No one is able to find salvation and joy in the Kingdom of God through their own effort.  Rather, our sin and mistakes are a mirror that reveal the depth of our desperate dependence, our brokenness, & our never-ending need for Christ every single moment of every single day.

Paul is telling the Jewish listeners that though they have been “chosen”, they are still in need of Christ. Even when the chosen people of God are faithless, God remains faithful. God’s righteousness and holiness are based upon who God is, not based upon anything His creation does. We will only find joy when we recognize our desperate and dependent need for Christ.

Being chosen seems to inevitably breed a sense of entitlement, of being better than. This sense of being “good” or “better than” versus others is extremely spiritually dangerous, because the standard is Christ. Paul continues to build his case that ALL of us are guilty of sinning against God, no matter our background and no matter what we think the external signs show. In today’s text, Paul goes on to argue that though many of us have symbols unmistakably connected to faith in God, the symbols in and of themselves are actually worthless to save us.

In Romans 2 Paul has laid a trap for anyone who thinks that the list of sins in chapter 1 isn't about them–reality is we are ALL on the hook for our choices & sin against God. Paul is attempting to deepen our understanding & experience of God’s Gospel which is what unites all of us out of our sin and into Him! In 2:12-16 he continues to develop the essential truth that God is not lenient, but He is undeniably fair & unmistakably firm in His judgment of everyone. 

God’s Rubric for Life1) God cares about what we actually do2) God cares about our motives3) God will evaluate everyone by the same standard4) The Gospel

Our society has trained us to think that being a “good person” is pleasing to God. That our “good” actions like attending church or serving the poor gain us favor and forgiveness. However, the hypocrisy that leaks from our life is actually causing a righteous anger in our patient God. We are storing up the WRONG treasure (God’s wrath), and this has massive implications. 

Paul is writing to a multi-faceted Church to prove that at the foot of the cross they’re all equal: sinners who have rejected Christ, exchanged absolute truths for a lie, and settled for lesser joys. Sin is the “fruit” of His truth being exchanged for what we feel is right. It starts in the head, penetrates the heart and flows through the hands in a myriad of actions (hands) that show who really sits on the throne of our hearts. If it’s anyone other than Jesus, we are ALL in big trouble.

3 TRUTHS ABOUT THE GOSPEL1) We don’t need to be ashamed of the Gospel.2) The Gospel is the only viable solution to life’s greatest problems.3) We need to know the Gospel to live the Gospel.