Your Story, His Story

Paul's letters to the early churches were, on one level, just that - - personal letters.  Accordingly, he greeted old friends and commended to old friends new ones.  We see an example of this at the end of Philippians (2:19-30 NET)

19Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be encouraged by hearing news about you. 20For there is no one here like him who will readily demonstrate his deep concern for you. 21Others are busy with their own concerns, not those of Jesus Christ. 22But you know his qualifications, that like a son working with his father, he served with me in advancing the gospel. 23So I hope to send him as soon as I know more about my situation, 24though I am confident in the Lord that I too will be coming to see you soon.

25But for now I have considered it necessary to send Epaphroditus to you. For he is my brother, coworker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to me in my need. 26Indeed, he greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you heard that he had been ill. 27In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. But God showed mercy to him – and not to him only, but also to me – so that I would not have grief on top of grief. 28Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you can rejoice and I can be free from anxiety. 29So welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor people like him, 30since it was because of the work of Christ that he almost died. He risked his life so that he could make up for your inability to serve me.

Here we begin to see a bit of Timothy's and Epaphroditus' stories.

Timothy was a young preacher/missionary, being mentored by Paul.  Being a minister of the gospel is a lonely, arduous calling.  Ministers need mentors, whether they are 18 or 24 or 58, or however old...They need mentors for encouragement, advisement and fellowship.  Mentors are godly advisors, those who are "farther down the path" and can point out signposts along the way.  We see here that part of Timothy's story is he bore a great love for the church at Philippi, and he was passionate about advancing the gospel.

Then, we have Epaphroditus.  Paul describes him as a Christian brother, coworker, fellow soldier of the Cross, messenger of the gospel and minister to the Flock as a whole.  It appears that Epaphroditus developed an illness which resulted from his arduous pursuit of the work of ministering the gospel.

In giving the Philippians a peek into the lives of Timothy and Epaphroditus, Paul also revealed some things about himself.  He would have loved social media, I think, because it would have allowed him to interact more frequently and more easily with the baby churches he had been graced by God to establish.  He confessed to some anxiety over Epaphroditus' condition and relief at God's mercy in the situation.

I am grateful at the many "stories" of people's lives, as they are revealed in the Bible.  I'm convinced that each one is there for the specific purpose of our edification.  None of them, except Jesus' own story, is flawless or free from either "potholes in the road" or downright "ditches".

All of this makes me think about my own "story", and I invite you to consider yours as well.  Another word for "story" is "legacy".  What type of story is our life leaving?  What will each of our legacies be?

Here is a key question:  are we trying to write our own stories?  Or, are we allowing God to write them, to use us to tell His story?

This is so important for Christ-followers to get right!  I was having a conversation about it with a friend yesterday.  One of the hardest things to discern is the voice of God, His leading in our lives. Often, we don't get a "lightning bolt answer".  There is no Damascus Road experience, as Paul had. Notice that Paul did not get those all the time.  Here, for example, he didn't know if E. was going to live or die!  It produced in him some grief and anxiety!

Our daily walk with Jesus is to be one of faith, a faith-walk.  If we ask Him to give us direction and discernment, to show us His way, He will.  If we seek and listen to His heart, He will speak.  And, what He speaks will always line up with His revealed, written Word, the Bible.

Unfortunately, we are prone to try to write our own stories....sort of the "I did it MY WAY" syndrome.  So ridiculous!  People who do that don't even realize that they are not in control at all....Furthermore, often, taking that approach results in many landing in a deep, dirty ditch, as opposed to walking the straight and narrow path of faith.  Paul alludes to these folks (Christians in this context, although both Christians and non-Christians are susceptible to this folly) in verse 21:

Others are busy with their own concerns, not those of Jesus Christ.

The best way to live out "your story" is to let Him write it on your heart.  Allow Him to write HIS story on your heart!  It will be a "work of art"!

https://youtu.be/ecV1NHmELuA

Father, thank you for the life stories, the examples You provide in Scripture.  Jesus gave us His perfect example.  Everyone else's was imperfect, some wildly so!  We can be assured, though, that if we allow You to write our stories, they will be magnificent testimonies to Your grace, mercy and boundless love.  They won't be easy, but they will be oh, so worth it!  Write Your story on our hearts! May that be so for each of us who call you Lord, precious Jesus!  In Your name, this prayer goes forth, amen.

The -IONS of The Story

Paul had a great gift for condensation, summarization and juxtaposition.  In Romans 5, he began with Adam, the first man, and painted in broad strokes the story of God's ongoing relationship with mankind.  In so doing, he threw a lot of multi-syllabic words around and contrasted theological concepts by presenting them in the same sentence (e.g. the "So...but" statements in vs. 15-21).  I'm going to use Paul's literary devices today to put Romans 5 in a more chronological order.  So, grab your Bibles and let's deconstruct Romans 5 together. (All scriptural references are from the NET.)

Collaboration
The first -ion is not explicitly mentioned in Romans 5.   But, I'm going to start with it because it is integral to "The Story".  In Genesis 1:26, the Hebrew is translated as this:
And said Elohim, "Let us make man in Our image, in Our likeness..."
"Elohim" in the Hebrew is a plural noun, as reflected in the pronouns "our" which follow it.  The Name encompasses Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all of whom collaborated in the creation of the first man.

Transgression

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned (5:12)

This refers to Adam's disobedience and sin in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3).  Adam's and Eve's disobedient acts caused all of their descendants (all the rest of humanity) to be born with a "sin nature".

Condemnation

For judgment, resulting from the one transgression, led to condemnation (5:16b)

Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression (5:18a)

What was the condemnation that came from Adam's sin?  God's judgment: death, both physical and spiritual (6:23).

Degradation

Yet death reigned from Adam until Moses even over those who did not sin in the same way that Adam (who is a type of the coming one) transgressed.
Romans 5:14

The whole of human history can be divided into three epochs:  before the Law, under the Law nad under Grace.  There were 11 generations between Adam and Noah.  That translates to 1100 years.  (Remember, before The Flood people lived for hundreds of years.)  During those centuries, mankind became so evil and the human bloodlines so corrupted by the disobedience of fallen angels that the Messianic bloodline itself was nearly lost!  It was because of this that God had to destroy the world, except for Noah's family, through which the Messianic bloodline would continue.  The spiritual battle was extremely intense in those days.
From Noah to Moses were 15 generations.  Noah built the ark because he believed God.  It was his faith in God which saved his family, according to God's plan.  Abraham, likewise, believed God, and it was credited to his spiritual account as righteousness.
By and large, though, during these 26 generations, mankind floundered, wallowing in spiritual death.

Written Revelation
The first written revelation God gave to mankind was the 5 books of the Law, also called The Pentateuch.  God chose Moses as the one to pen these books, which have guided Judaism (and later, Christianity) for millennia. The rest of the Old Testament followed, as God's further revelation. Paul reveals the purpose of The Law in vs. 20:

Now the law came in so that the transgression may increase

In other words, the Law revealed mankind's lawlessness to a greater degree.  The Law gave an "impossibly high" standard, which pointed out just how fruitless it was for people to try to "be good enough" to satisfy a holy God.

On that "happy note" (NOT! lol) we will stop for today.  Tomorrow we will get to the most-excellent news of Romans 5 ---  Propitiation, Justification/Reconciliation, Elevation, Sanctification and Glorification!

Elohim, my Triune God, thank you for Your magnificent Story!  In Jesus' name, amen.