Being United Methodist
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 12:9-21
I was born during Sunday school into the family of a Southern Baptist pastor. Two weeks after my second birthday, we touched down in Brazil, where my family served as missionaries throughout the rest of my parents' careers in ministry. I served as a summer missionary, home missionary, church planter apprentice, career missionary, minister of music, and pastor in Baptist circles until recently. So, why am I now clergy in the United Methodist Church?
When Paul wrote his letter to the believers in Rome, he had many issues to cover. He developed a theme of discussing grace at the outset of his letter, detailing the importance of the central tenet of his gospel, that we all come to God on the basis of what God has done for us, not in any way on the basis of what we might do or have done on behalf of God. Salvation is wholly dependent upon God's grace, if in no other respect than because none of us is worthy of God's care, attention, and acceptance. We are indeed sinners, yet in full recognition of our condition, God entered the sphere of human life, taking on human flesh, and fulfilling every role possible in the whole of the sacrificial system in order to effect our reconciliation with God. Once that concern was addressed fully, Paul turns to the meat of his argument as we find it developed in today's passage.
We are indeed saved on the basis of grace, because of grace, and at the initiative of God. In Christ Jesus, we have been reconciled. Once we have been so reconciled and brought into relationship with God, there is now a purpose in our living towards which we are called to strive. The beginning of this chapter speaks of becoming living sacrifices, offered to God. Starting with today's text, Paul begins to detail what being living sacrifices entails. He speaks of an assortment of things. He speaks of love, zeal, service, perseverance, generosity, welcome, and hospitality. He speaks of living i ...
Christopher B. Harbin
Romans 12:9-21
I was born during Sunday school into the family of a Southern Baptist pastor. Two weeks after my second birthday, we touched down in Brazil, where my family served as missionaries throughout the rest of my parents' careers in ministry. I served as a summer missionary, home missionary, church planter apprentice, career missionary, minister of music, and pastor in Baptist circles until recently. So, why am I now clergy in the United Methodist Church?
When Paul wrote his letter to the believers in Rome, he had many issues to cover. He developed a theme of discussing grace at the outset of his letter, detailing the importance of the central tenet of his gospel, that we all come to God on the basis of what God has done for us, not in any way on the basis of what we might do or have done on behalf of God. Salvation is wholly dependent upon God's grace, if in no other respect than because none of us is worthy of God's care, attention, and acceptance. We are indeed sinners, yet in full recognition of our condition, God entered the sphere of human life, taking on human flesh, and fulfilling every role possible in the whole of the sacrificial system in order to effect our reconciliation with God. Once that concern was addressed fully, Paul turns to the meat of his argument as we find it developed in today's passage.
We are indeed saved on the basis of grace, because of grace, and at the initiative of God. In Christ Jesus, we have been reconciled. Once we have been so reconciled and brought into relationship with God, there is now a purpose in our living towards which we are called to strive. The beginning of this chapter speaks of becoming living sacrifices, offered to God. Starting with today's text, Paul begins to detail what being living sacrifices entails. He speaks of an assortment of things. He speaks of love, zeal, service, perseverance, generosity, welcome, and hospitality. He speaks of living i ...
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