THE SHAPE OF A TRANSFORMED FAITH

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with these words: “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 - 14) This is an important and direct reminder of where our priorities lie. In Matthew a lawyer challenges Jesus. With these foundational reminders of our responsibilities as Christians and the spiritual environment in which we are to function as followers of Christ, I’d like to take a look this evening at a well known passage from Paul’s letter to the Roman church. As he did with a couple of his other letters, Paul divided the letter to the Romans into two major sections. The first 11 chapters of Romans is primarily doctrinal in focus while chapters 12 to 16 are more focused on practical application. While this text has many applications, I’d like to focus in this evening on 3 primary ideas and applications for us.