Devotions

making body parts available

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:9-14

⁹ We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer dominates him.¹⁰ Because the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God.¹¹ In the same way, you also must conclude yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.¹² This means not letting sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires,¹³ and do not make your body parts available to sin as tools to be used for unrighteousness, but make yourselves available to God as those who are alive from the dead and your body parts to God as tools to be used for righteousness.¹⁴ Because sin will not dominate you, because you are not under law but under grace.

making body parts available

Christ’s death and resurrection stand as the decisive victory over sin’s authority. That triumph is not merely an event to admire from a distance; it becomes the pattern and power for the believer’s life. After baptism, life is meant to be understood through the lens of that victory. Baptism symbolizes union with Christ in His death and resurrection, and that union means sin’s dominion has been broken. The believer is no longer a captive who must obey sin’s demands but a freed person called to live in the strength of Christ’s risen life.

Because of this new reality, believers are urged to place every part of their being—mind, emotions, desires, speech, actions—at God’s disposal. Nothing is excluded. The body is not a neutral instrument; it becomes either a tool for righteousness or a tool for sin. Paul’s call is for believers to consciously and continually present themselves to God so that righteousness becomes the pattern of their lives. This includes the inner life as much as the outer: thoughts, motives, and affections are to be shaped by the grace that now reigns.

Just as Christ’s death was the only remedy for the penalty of sin, righteous living empowered by grace is the only remedy for sin’s ongoing power. The law could diagnose the problem but could not cure it. It could reveal sin but could not break its grip. Obedience to the law alone, without the transforming work of Christ, only intensified the struggle. What the law could not accomplish, union with Christ does. Identifying with Christ in faith—daily, hourly, moment by moment—opens the way for genuine transformation.

This identification is not passive. It involves a continual offering of the self to God, a deliberate turning away from the old patterns and a steady leaning into the new life Christ provides. Righteous living is not a human achievement but the fruit of surrender to God’s work within. Grace does not merely forgive; it empowers. It reshapes the will, redirects the heart, and strengthens the body to act in ways that reflect God’s character.

The call is clear: live as one who shares in Christ’s victory. Make every part of life available to God. Trust that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is at work, enabling a life that resists sin’s pull and displays the righteousness God delights to produce.

LORD, we surrender to you everything that we surrendered to the water when we were baptized. We make all our lives available to you.

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baptism and the way out

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 6:1-8

¹What should we conclude then? Should we keep sinning so that grace may increase?² Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it?³ Or do you not know that those who were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?⁴ The conclusion is that we have been buried with him through baptism into death, so that in the same way as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.⁵ Because since we have become united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united in a resurrection like his.⁶ We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the sinful body would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.⁷ (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)⁸ Now if we died along with Christ, we believe that we will also live along with him.

baptism and the way out

The legalistic mindset that shaped many Jews in Paul’s day treated the law as the pathway out of sin’s grip. Obedience, in their view, functioned like a ladder: climb high enough, and escape the domination of sin. Paul dismantled that assumption with force. The law, though holy and good, was never designed to liberate from sin’s power. When the law stands alone—without the transforming work of Christ—it does not reduce sin but exposes it. The clearer the knowledge of God’s will becomes, the more obvious human failure becomes. Instead of producing holiness, the law highlights guilt, and guilt fuels further rebellion. Sin, left unchecked, rules like a tyrant.

Because of this reality, some might imagine an opposite error: if the law increases sin, and grace covers sin, then perhaps the answer is to rely on atonement while continuing in deliberate disobedience. Paul anticipates that twisted logic and answers with unmistakable intensity: absolutely not. Grace is not a license for sin; it is the power that breaks sin’s rule.

To correct the misunderstanding, Paul directs believers back to the gospel they confessed when they entered the waters of baptism. Baptism was not a mere ritual but a symbolic participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. Being lowered beneath the water mirrored Christ being lowered into death, willingly submitting to the cross. Rising from the water mirrored Christ rising from the grave, breathing again the air of new creation. This act proclaimed that Christ’s victory over sin was not only His own triumph but the believer’s new identity.

Because Christ died to sin and rose to new life, those united with Him share in that same pattern. Life after baptism is not meant to be lived under sin’s dominion. The believer is not a slave returning to an old master but a resurrected person walking in newness of life. Sin may still tempt, but it no longer commands. Its authority has been broken. The gospel calls believers to live as people who have already passed through death and emerged into a different kind of existence—one shaped by Christ’s victory rather than Adam’s fall.

LORD, when sin wants to drag us down, remind us of the time when you raised us up. Remind us that sin no longer dominates us.

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grace reigning through righteousness

Posted on December 20, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:18-21

¹⁸ Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came as a result of one transgression, so too by the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people.¹⁹ Because in the same way that the disobedience of the one man made many sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be made righteous.²⁰ Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,²¹ so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace will reign through righteousness resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

grace reigning through righteousness

The passage describes the contrast between two realms of authority: the reign of sin and the reign of grace. Under the rule of sin, the law—though holy and good—ended up exposing human disobedience rather than curing it. The law revealed the depth of rebellion but could not transform the heart. As a result, sin increased, and with it came the inevitable consequence Scripture associates with sin: death. This death is not only physical but spiritual, a separation from the life God intends.

Into that bleak reality came a new reign, established through the death and resurrection of Christ. Grace entered human history not as an abstract idea but as a power that accomplishes what the law could never achieve. Grace does not merely forgive; it creates new life. It produces righteousness—real, lived obedience that flows from a heart changed by God rather than pressured by external commands. Because condemnation has been removed through Christ, the people of God are no longer trapped under the old dominion. They are free to grow in righteousness, to resist sin, and to reflect the character of the Savior.

This growth is not perfection. Scripture never promises a life without struggle or failure in the present age. Yet it does promise genuine transformation. Grace trains, shapes, and strengthens believers so that obedience becomes increasingly possible. The reign of grace is not passive; it is active within the heart, forming the righteousness God desires to display in the world. Through this work, glimpses of eternal life appear even now—moments of holiness, joy, and spiritual clarity that anticipate the fullness of the life to come.

LORD, we have had enough of sin reigning in our lives and producing death. We surrender our hearts to your grace. Produce in us the righteousness you want to demonstrate.

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the next Adam

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:12-17

¹² Because of this, in the same way that sin entered the world through one man and death entered as a consequence of that sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned–¹³ because before the law was given, sin was already in the world, but there is no judgment upon sin when there is no law.¹⁴ Yet death prevailed from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the next Adam) transgressed.¹⁵ But the free gift is not like the transgression in one way. That is, since the many died through the transgression of the one man, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!¹⁶ And the gift is not like the one who sinned. Because judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation, but the gracious gift led to justification from even the many failures.¹⁷ For if, by the transgression of the one man, death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

the next Adam

Paul draws the great contrast between the two heads of humanity—Adam and Christ—and he does it with pastoral precision. Adam’s transgression brought condemnation to everyone “in him,” which is simply another way of saying the entire human race. His sin unleashed death into the world, and nothing Christ did on the cross reversed that physical consequence. We still die because we are children of Adam. The mortality we carry in our bodies is the lingering evidence of his rebellion.

So what, then, did Christ’s obedience accomplish? Paul’s answer is stunning. Christ did not remove the temporal effects of Adam’s sin; he transformed the eternal outcome for all who receive the gift of righteousness by faith. Adam’s act brought death; Christ’s act brings life. Adam’s disobedience made sinners; Christ’s obedience makes the believing sinner righteous. Adam’s legacy is the grave; Christ’s legacy is resurrection.

The wages of sin is still death. That truth applies to everyone in Adam—including us. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Christ is the “next Adam,” the head of a new humanity. And because he has been raised, we have the sure hope that we too will be raised into a sinless, eternal life. His resurrection is not merely a miracle; it is the beginning of a new creation, the first fruits of what will one day be true of all who belong to him.

In Adam, death reigns.
In Christ, life reigns.
In Adam, we inherit corruption.
In Christ, we inherit glory.

Thank you, Lord, for becoming the next Adam, giving us hope for a sinless eternity.

Posted in future, hope, mortality | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

resurrection reconciliation

Posted on December 18, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:6-11

⁶ Because while we were still helpless, at just the right time Christ died on behalf of the ungodly.⁷ (Because rarely will anyone die even on behalf of a righteous person, though someone might possibly dare to die for a good person, perhaps.)⁸ But God proves his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.⁹ So he did so much more, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved by him from God’s wrath.¹⁰ For if while we were his enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?¹¹ Not only this, but we also delight in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received this reconciliation.

resurrection reconciliation

Paul draws a beautiful distinction here between what Christ accomplished and what Christ demonstrated. His death on the cross secured our reconciliation—he bore our sin, absorbed our judgment, and removed the barrier that stood between us and God. But it is his resurrection that reveals that reconciliation to the world. The empty tomb is God’s public declaration that the sacrifice worked, that sin’s penalty has been paid, and that death’s dominion has been broken.

Christ did for us what we could never do in our sinful state. We could not reconcile ourselves. We could not cleanse ourselves. We could not raise ourselves. But now, because he is raised, he gives us hope that we too will share in a resurrection unto eternal, sinless life. His resurrection is not merely proof of his victory—it is the preview of ours.

So when we feel helpless in our brokenness, when sin feels like a weight we cannot lift, we look to the cross. And what we see is not a crucified Savior still hanging there, but an empty cross—the work finished. And we look to the tomb, and we see an empty tomb—the victory secured. It was necessary that Christ die, but it was not necessary that he remain dead. His rising is the unveiling of God’s eternal plan for all who trust in him.

The empty cross tells us our sins are forgiven.
The empty tomb tells us our future is secure.

Thank you, Lord, for the empty cross and the empty tomb.

Posted in atonement, reconciliation, resurrection | Tagged Romans 5 | Leave a comment

admission into grace

Posted on December 17, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 5:1-5

¹ Consequently, now that we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,² through whom we have also obtained admission by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we delight in the expectation of God’s glory.³ Not only this, but we also delight in the things that we suffer, knowing that the suffering produces endurance,⁴ and endurance, character, and character, more expectation.⁵ And what we expect does not disappoint us, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

admission into grace

Paul has just shown Abraham as the model of resurrection faith—faith that looks at what is dead and trusts God to bring life. Now he explains why that faith was effective. Abraham’s confidence was not grounded in his own strength or virtue. It was grounded in a future act of God that Abraham could only glimpse from afar: the death and resurrection of Christ. The cross was still centuries away, but its power was already flowing backward into Abraham’s story. His faith worked because it rested—however dimly—on the same saving work that now stands at the center of the gospel.

And what was true for Abraham is true for every believer in Rome, and every believer today. Because of Christ’s death, we can look beyond our sin. Because of Christ’s resurrection, we can expect God’s glory in our future. His obedience, not ours, opened the door into grace. His blood purchased our peace. His resurrection secured our hope. We stand in grace because Christ stood in our place.

Paul then turns to the reality of suffering. If we have been admitted into God’s grace through Christ, suffering cannot poison that joy. In fact, suffering intensifies our longing for the renewal of all things. It sharpens our hope. It reminds us that the world is not yet what God intends it to be—but it will be. The same God who raised Jesus from the dead will raise creation into glory. So suffering does not diminish our delight; it deepens it. It makes the coming glory more precious.

Lord, thank you for the price you paid for our admission into your grace, and for the expectation of your coming glory.

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resurrection faith

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 4:18-25

¹⁸ Against hope Abraham believed in hope with the result that he became the father of a crowd of nations according to the pronouncement, “so will your descendants be.”¹⁹ Without being weak in faith, he considered his own body as dead (because he was about one hundred years old) and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.²⁰ He did not vacillate in unbelief about the promise of God but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God.²¹ He was fully convinced that what God promised he was also able to do.²² So indeed it was credited to Abraham as righteousness.²³ But the statement it was credited to him was not written only for Abraham’s sake,²⁴ but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.²⁵ He was sacrificed because we had transgressed and was raised because we had been declared righteous.

resurrection faith

Paul brings faith down from the clouds and anchors it in something concrete—something embodied in the life of Abraham. Faith is not vague optimism or religious sentiment. It is trust in God’s ability to bring life out of death. That is the essence of Abraham’s story.

When Paul describes Abraham’s faith, he does not point to Abraham’s courage, morality, or spiritual discipline. He points to Abraham’s confidence in God’s power to raise the dead. Abraham was not contemplating his own mortality; he was staring at the deadness of Sarah’s womb. Every natural indicator said the promise was impossible. Her body could not produce life. Yet God had promised that nations would come from her. Abraham believed that the God who calls things into existence could also bring life out of death. That is resurrection faith.

Then Paul turns to first‑century Rome. He looks at a community of believers—some Jewish, many Gentile—who faced their own impossible reality. Their Messiah had been crucified. Their hope had died on a Roman cross. But God raised him from the dead. And these believers dared to trust that resurrection. They believed that the God who gave life to Sarah’s barren womb had given life to Jesus’ lifeless body. Their faith was not abstract. It was resurrection-shaped, resurrection-rooted, resurrection-dependent.

This is the kind of faith God gives—and the kind he honors. It is the faith that looks at what is dead and trusts God to bring life. It is the faith that sees the impossible and believes the promise. It is the faith of Abraham, now alive in the people of Christ.

Lord, help us reflect the resurrection faith of our father Abraham.

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father of us all

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 4:12-17

¹² And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed while he was still uncircumcised.¹³ Because the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would inherit the world was not fulfilled by keeping the law, but through the righteousness that comes by faith.¹⁴ Because if they become heirs by the law, faith is empty and the promise is nullified.¹⁵ Because the law brings wrath, because where there is no law there is no transgression either.¹⁶ For this reason it is by faith so that it may be by grace, with the result that the promise may be certain to all the descendants–not only to those who are under the law, but also to those who have the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.¹⁷ (Scripture states, “I have made you the father of a crowd of Gentiles”).[1] He is our father in the presence of God whom he believed–the God who makes the dead alive and summons the things that do not yet exist as though they already do.

father of us all

Paul talks about two groups of saPaul continues his careful, pastoral work of uniting the Roman church by returning to the shared spiritual ancestry of all believers. Abraham is not merely the father of the Jewish people; he is the father of all who walk in the footsteps of his faith. That means there are two groups of saved people, and both are saved by grace through faith in God’s promise.

First, there is the circumcised—Jewish believers—who follow in the spiritual footsteps of their natural ancestor. These believers do not trust in the outward sign or in their obedience to the law. They trust in the God of Abraham, the God who justifies the ungodly, the God who saves by promise rather than performance.

Next, there is the “crowd of Gentiles” who also walk in those same spiritual footsteps, even though they do not share Abraham’s bloodline and were never under the Mosaic covenant. They came to faith in Christ, and Paul insists they must be welcomed fully into the family of Abraham on the basis of that faith. Their inclusion is not a downgrade of Judaism but the fulfillment of what God promised—that Abraham would be the father of many nations.

Paul brings this up for at least two reasons.
He wants Jewish Christians to remain anchored in the gospel and not drift back into the legalism and ethnic pride that once defined their religious life. Such pride could tempt them to distance themselves from Gentile believers or even from Christ himself.
And he wants the entire Roman church—Jew and Gentile—to unite around one gospel: salvation by grace through faith, unpolluted by works‑based righteousness or cultural superiority. Only a gospel free from legalism and ethnic pride can create a unified people who reflect the heart of God.

Lord, help us keep the gospel we preach pure—free from the contamination of legalism and ethnic pride. May we walk together as children of Abraham, united by faith in your grace.

[1] Genesis 17:4 (from the Hebrew).

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the sign as a seal

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 4:6-11

⁶ This is how even David himself speaks regarding the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness regardless of works:⁷ “Blessed are those whose lawless works are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;⁸ blessed is the one against whom the Lord will never count sin.”⁹ Is this blessedness then for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? Because we say, “faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.”¹⁰ On what basis was it credited to him? Was he circumcised at the time, or not? No, he was not circumcised but uncircumcised!¹¹ And he received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised, so that he would become the father of all those who believe but have never been circumcised, that they too could have righteousness credited to them.

the sign as a seal

Paul addresses another deeply rooted assumption within the Judaism of his upbringing—the belief that circumcision was a work required to secure God’s favor. Many in his tradition viewed it as a decisive act that placed a person on God’s good side. Those who bore the sign were considered safe; those who did not were seen as hopelessly lost, regardless of their moral character or sincerity. Circumcision had become, in practice, a boundary marker dividing the “forgiven” from the “condemned,” a ritual believed to guarantee protection from judgment.

Paul dismantles this thinking by returning again to the story of Abraham. According to the Torah itself, Abraham was declared righteous long before he was circumcised. The sign did not produce forgiveness; it celebrated forgiveness already received. Circumcision was intended to be a seal—a visible reminder of the grace God had already shown. It was never meant to be a prerequisite for salvation, nor a ritual that forced God’s hand. Abraham’s relationship with God began with faith, not with a knife.

This truth has enormous implications for Paul’s mission. If Abraham was justified before circumcision, then the door of salvation stands wide open for the uncircumcised. The gospel can be preached freely to those who have never practiced Jewish rituals and never will. The sign pointed to grace; it did not restrict grace. What mattered was the promise of God and the faith that embraced that promise. Abraham becomes the spiritual forefather of all who believe—Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised—because he trusted God before any ritual marked his body.

Paul’s argument liberates the gospel from cultural boundaries. It shows that salvation has always been rooted in God’s initiative, not human performance. The sign of circumcision, rightly understood, becomes a testimony to grace, not a barrier to it. And the same grace that reached Abraham reaches all who believe today.

Lord, we celebrate the inheritance received from our spiritual forefather Abraham. We celebrate the forgiveness you granted him before he was circumcised. We celebrate the message of grace that the sign itself was meant to signify.

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demythologizing Abraham

Posted on December 13, 2014 by Jefferson Vann

Romans 4:1-5

¹ What then should we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, concluded regarding this matter?² Because if Abraham was declared righteous by the works of the law, he has something to brag about–but not in God’s presence.³ Because what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”⁴ Now to the one who works, his pay is not credited as a result of grace but because of obligation.⁵ But to the one who does not work, but believes in the one who declares the ungodly righteous, his faith is credited as righteousness.

demythologizing Abraham

Paul confronts a deeply rooted assumption within the Judaism of his day—the belief that Abraham was accepted by God because he had perfectly kept the law, even before the law existed. This myth had shaped generations of religious thinking. It suggested that righteousness came through obedience, and that Abraham was the model of flawless law‑keeping. But Paul urges the Jewish Christians in Rome to return to the Torah itself. When they do, they discover something very different.

According to the Scriptures, God approved of Abraham long before Sinai, long before circumcision, long before any opportunity to perform works of the law. Abraham’s standing before God rested not on obedience but on trust. He believed the promise of the God of grace, and that faith—not performance—was counted to him as righteousness. Paul’s argument is simple but revolutionary: if Abraham was justified by faith, then faith—not law‑keeping—is the true foundation of salvation.

This truth exposes the myth, but it also exposes the human heart. The impulse to turn religious observances into a pathway for earning God’s approval is not limited to ancient Judaism. It persists in every age. Many still present Christianity as a system of moral achievement, a ladder climbed by spiritual effort. But Paul insists that this is not the gospel. In fact, he argues that it was never the message of the Torah either. The law was never designed to save. Salvation came first, and the law served as a guide for those already redeemed.

Grace through faith is the consistent message of both testaments. Abraham is the father of all who believe because he dared to trust God’s promise before he saw its fulfillment. His righteousness was a gift, not a wage. His story becomes the pattern for every believer—Jew or Gentile—who receives God’s righteousness by faith in Christ.

Paul’s goal is not merely theological correction. He wants the Roman believers to proclaim a gospel free from distortion. A gospel that does not burden hearers with impossible demands. A gospel that reveals salvation as God’s work from beginning to end. When the myth is stripped away, the beauty of grace shines clearly.

Lord, help us demythologize our presentation of the gospel so that those who hear understand that salvation is your work, not ours.

[1] Genesis 15:6.

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