The Power of Receiving

As I was between wake and sleep the Holy Spirit kindly gave me the impression of Romans 5.  As I began to read Romans 5, I was drawn into verse 17.  I love that walking with God is truly an adventure, even though many times I want it to be all planned out and safely boring.  God is too amazing to fit in my box of boring, so He is constantly getting out of the box to show me who He is.

All of us through our lives in our story seem to hit a dimension where it turns darker, more tragic, and there doesn't seem to be a way through.  In other words it was not only Adam and Eve that experienced a Fall.  It may be that the relationship we were pinning our hopes on for love is not working, our dreams for success seem to be crashing, our financial situation closes in on us, or the secret sin habit seems to rule more of our life.  Tragedy and Fall is not unknown to most people's story, yet many cover this over only to redouble there effort to overcome but you can only do this so many times before reaching utter exhaustation.

Romans 5:17 speaks to this place in our stories, the passage says "For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ."  Could it be that when we reach these places of tragedy we are only simply discovering the condition "death reigned through the one."  This phrase speaks of Adam as a type of king who ruled over the entire human race and that his fall was all of our fall.  Our destiny was tied up in his destiny.  Some proudly say, "if I was Adam I would not have eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."  Yet if we are to examine their lives, in theirs like mine we all have a fall.  It is amazing that as a people (apart from Christ) who are actually functioning "in death" call it life.

In this passage God points us to life, which is the God-kind of life (zoe).  God-life is one that is completely tied up in relationship, majesty, beauty, love, kindness, goodness, and eternal grace.  I have found that God is overly concerned about my circumstances as He is about His relationship with me.  In this relationship He is growing us in our identity in Him as His sons and daughters, where everything about our lives are caught up in Him.  It is not making sure your circumstances go the way you want but finding Him in whatever circumstance you find yourself.  It's amazing how Joseph has a dream, in his youthful exuberance shares it with his insecure and overly jealous brothers.  These same brothers sell him off to get rid of him but the favor of God on his life leads him to become the chief of a rich man's house.  Joseph seems to be at the top of his game, when the darkness enters in to steal this favor and Joseph is cast out of the house accused of adultry.  Joseph finds himself in a prison, more like a pit with a few others guys.  Joseph again finds God in this place and turns this prison into a palace because he knows who His God is and who he is.

Receiving life, which His grace, His love, His kindness, and all that He is changes everything in our lives.  Our life is now bound up in the destiny of another, fortunately Jesus was destined to reign over all humanity.

Receiving His grace,
Bret