⁣Romans 8:28-30 ESV
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Foreknew doesn’t mean that God knew what was going to happen or who was going to do what or even the character of each person who didn’t exist yet (even if he does, that's not what the word means in this passage). It’s talking about God’s established relationship with those whom he has determined to conform into the image of his Son. "Foreknew" should be translated as "already knows".

Predestined doesn't mean that God decided from before Creation that Joe was going to Hell and John was going to Heaven. It means that God made a plan to transform all who would believe in Yeshua into living images of Yeshua.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Joe Aymond grew up in Port Barre, LA where his dad began teaching and exposing him to music at a very young age. In 1996, Joe joined together with 4 friends and formed a worship band. With the invaluable support and direction of their youth pastor, Chris Burney, Xtreme Faith traveled from Louisiana to Florida for the next 3 1/2 years leading worship for youth ministries, camps, and retreats. During this time, Joe felt the unmistakable call to ministry.

In 2000, Joe moved to DeRidder, Louisiana, where he traveled, singing and leading worship for Evangelist Kelly Hendren. In 2001, Joe became the Student Pastor at Grace in DeRidder. During his 14 years at Grace, Joe has preached, taught, and led worship all across the country.

In mid-2006, the Father began speaking to Joe and disturbing his peace. Joe began digging and studying everything he could to find out what the Father was teaching, where He was guiding him, and what direction he was to take. Joe and his little family studied and observed Torah personally for several years until the Father called them to step out from their church staff position in 2015. After taking time to seek the Father on what to do next, Out of Ashes Ministries was born. OAM continues to grow, being a bridge for those whom the Father is awakening, and providing a safe and healthy place to come together to learn and grow in The Way of Messiah Yeshua, the Torah.

Joe currently resides in Rosepine, LA with his beautiful wife Heather and four children: Gabriella, Genevieve, Josiah, and Asher.

You can read more about Joe and Out of Ashes Ministries at https://www.outofashesministries.org/.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Everyone has a story and almost everyone has experienced a moment in which everything changed. Maybe there was a long buildup or maybe it came like a flash flood, but there was a single event or realization that triggered a fundamental shift in world view. For believers in Yeshua, that moment might have been when we realized who he really is or when we realized that some major things we were taught about him and his ministry just weren't true. That's the moment when we began an exodus from our own personal Egypt.

Join the Common Sense Bible Study community at 7 PM CDT on April 4th for a live conversation with Dr. Dinah Dye about her Leaving Egypt experience. Only members of Common Sense Bible Study will be able to participate in this conversation, but membership is free!

Dr. Dye was raised in Ottawa, Canada, in a conservative Jewish home. She attended Hebrew school, celebrated the festivals with her family, and enjoyed summers at an Orthodox Jewish summer camp. Dinah spent her teen years and early twenties deeply involved in the New Age movement. During those years, she came to the belief that truth would be based on three things: it would be easy to understand, it would be for everyone, and it would be based on love. She met that truth in 1979 in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah.

Dinah served in a number of teaching positions with Assemblies of God and was the Director of the Bible Institute for Foursquare International. She has also taught in a variety of media venues including GLC (God’s Learning Channel), Son Broadcasting in New Mexico, and BRAD TV in South Korea.

Dinah recognized the importance of connecting the Gospels and the Epistles to their foundation in the Torah (first five books of the Bible). That understanding led to the creation of her ministry, Foundations in Torah. Dr. Dye holds a DMIN in Hebraic Studies in Christianity and has been teaching the Hebraic foundation of the New Testament for nearly 40 years. Dinah’s teachings are available on her membership website in audio and video formats. She speaks regularly at conferences and for local congregations throughout the United States, Canada, and internationally.

Currently, Dr. Dye hosts a radio show with author Jeff Morton called Returning to Eden, where the two discuss the language of the Kingdom of God from a Biblical and ancient Near Eastern perspective. She also has a weekly TV show on ITVN (Israel TV Network).

Dinah’s real passion is to help students of the Bible recognize the Hebraic nature of the New Testament Scriptures, as well as the ancient Near East world. Dr. Dye’s research revolves around the Temple which she suggests is the framework for understanding the entire Bible.

You can learn more about Dr. Dye at https://dinahdye.com/ and at https://foundationsintorah.com/. You can contact her at dinahdye@protonmail.com.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Sorry about the strange audio effect at the end of the video. I'm not sure what happened there.

Romans 8:18-23 ESV
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.
20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope
21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Several places in Scripture talk about how Creation longs for the day when God judges the world and everything is restored. Paul and John tell us that Creation won't just be restored, but will be resurrected and glorified just like us. The end is a mirror image of the beginning, but bigger and better!

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Romans 8:12-17 ESV
12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Paul uses the word spirit (pneuma) six times in this short passage, and he uses it in multiple ways. They don't all refer to God's Spirit, not even when most translations capitalize the word. There's a chiasm in these verses that might help you see the idea that Paul was trying to explain.

A - V12-13 - Killing the flesh per God’s Spirit leads to life
B - V14 - Spirit of God reveals sons of God
C - V15 - Spirit of slavery vs spirit of adoption as sons
B - V16 - Spirit of God reveals children of God
A - V17 - Suffering in flesh per God’s Son leads to life

Our job is to stop behaving like slaves (having a spirit of slavery) and start behaving as sons (having a spirit of adoption as sons) as God intends.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Romans 8:5-8 ESV

What does it mean to live according to the flesh? To live according to the spirit? How does living according to the flesh lead to death? How does the spirit lead to life? And why are you completely incapable of pleasing God on your own?

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Romans 7:21-23 ESV

For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Romans 8:2-3 ESV

Paul seems to bounce back and forth between different laws and spirits even in the same verse. It can get very confusing. Is he talking about the same law? A different one? Is this spirit the Holy Spirit or something else?

It's helpful to understand that Paul talks about at least 4 different kinds of laws and at least 4 different kinds of spirits. There isn't always a clear line between these different categories, but knowing that they exist can bring a lot of clarity to confusing passages like Romans 7 and 8.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Romans 7:14-17 ESV

Until the resurrection, we all face a constant struggle with the flesh to live according to God's Law, but as long as we struggle, we also have a good indication that our spirits are already in agreement with the Law. Remember that your salvation doesn't depend on your feelings and failures, but on your commitment to remain faithful in spite of those things.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Romans 7:7 ESV

Reference also, James 2:8-13, Leviticus 19:13-18, and Exodus 20:13-14.

Paul plainly and strongly asserts that we are not to continue in sin once we have been saved by grace. We are not beneath the Law, but we are to live in agreement with it, because the Law tells us what sin is. Not just the ten commandments, but the whole Law, because as James explains, the Law is indivisible. If you break a commandment in Leviticus 19, it is just as much a sin as breaking a commandment in Exodus 20.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Romans 7:1-3 ESV

Related passages from the Old Testament (re the High Priest and levirate marriage) as well as the Greek word for a woman "which has a husband" (KJV) in Romans 7:2 shed significant light on Paul's meaning in this passage. Here's a hint: It does not say that the Law dies or that the commandments in the Law are not for all Christians today. It's about authority relationships, not the applicability of Torah.

Deuteronomy 25:5-10 and Leviticus 21:4.

From a conversation with the Common Sense Bible Study community at https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com.

From Jay Carper at American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣The Common Sense Bible Study community had a conversation with David and Molly Patterson about short-term and service-oriented missions around the world.

David and Molly Patterson have been married for 39 years. They have 2 children and 10 grandchildren. They have, together, been involved with and had a heart for Short Term Missions since young adults but their commitment to “coming alongside” missionaries in other countries began in 2004, with an eye opening trip to Germany. They have since been in India, Poland, Wales, Thailand, Ireland, and Guatemala. They are currently investing their time, energy and resources, as the LORD continues to direct, with some missionaries in El Salvador. They believe the best way they can be of help is through relationship.

Check out Torah Tube at https://tube.ttn.place/

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Romans 6:14 ESV

The phrase "Under the Law" is one of the most misunderstood and abused in all of Scripture. The meaning is obvious if you let Paul's letter to the Romans speak for itself, but it can be very difficult to stop filtering his words through our church's doctrinal lenses.

It's not Judaizing to teach obedience to God's Law. In fact, that was the dominant teaching of all of Christendom until the last century. The key is to be obedient as a son to his father and not as a criminal slave to his jailer.

In this video, the Common Sense Bible Study community addresses the questions of "What is sin?" and "What does it mean to be under law and under grace?"

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
Romans 6:8-9 ESV

What does it mean that Christ was raised from the dead? Can he have a physical body in Heaven? What exactly is Heaven?

The Common Sense Bible Study crew wades into some deep waters in this video while I repeatedly say "I don't know".

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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The two biggest events in Israel's history happened at Passover, and throughout the Bible, revivals were marked by a subsequent Passover celebration.

⁣What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 6:1-4 ESV

What does it mean to be dead to sin and baptized into Yeshua's death? Was his death a sacrificial offering like those performed at the Temple?

The Common Sense Bible Study community explores these questions and the power of Jesus' blood in this video.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 5:20-21 ESV

God didn't give Moses his Law in order to create sin where it didn't exist before, but to magnify the sin we were already committing, so that nobody could deny it. Once we are made aware of our sin by the witness of the written commandments, we are also made aware of our need for God's grace.

Adam's sin brought death to all men, and that corruption leads all men to sin, subjecting them to the power of sin and death, which is the power of the Law to condemn. On the other hand, Yeshua's death enables God's grace to forgive our sin, releasing us from the Law's power to condemn, but not from its power to teach us right from wrong.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Romans 5:11 ESV

Joy is commanded throughout the Torah. This is what the book of Deuteronomy has to say about the oppressive, burdensome sacrificial system:

ch12 - You shall eat your sacrifices before YHWH your God and rejoice before him.
ch14 - You shall eat there before YHWH your God and rejoice.
ch16 - You shall rejoice before YHWH your God.
ch26 - You shall rejoice in all the good that YHWH your God has given to you and to your house.
ch27 - You shall rejoice before YHWH your God.

God's Law is only burdensome to those who keep it in order to earn their way into God's favor. That will never work. His commandments bring a level of fulfillment and peace that can't be found anywhere else, but it is only through the reconciliation purchased by Yeshua that we can ever achieve that joy. Any other path leads only to disappointment and heartache.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Did we inherit guilt from Adam? Or just an evil inclination? What is sin? What is the remedy for sin and guilt and the evil inclination?

On December 6, 2023, the Common Sense Bible Study community was live with Rob Vanhoff to talk about Romans 5:12-21 and the doctrines of Original Sin. I say "doctrines" (plural), because there is significant disagreement among theologians about what this actually means. This was an amazing opportunity to have a conversation with a really smart guy with a deep understanding of the Scriptures and its ancient Jewish context.

A lifelong resident of the beautiful Pacific Northwest, Rob loves Yeshua (Jesus) and teaches the Bible in many facets: cultural contexts, ancient languages and translation, interpretation history, and most importantly what it means to be a disciple of the Messiah today. His purpose is to bring accuracy and clarity to the articulation of the Gospel message within its “full Bible” framework. Rob has an MA in comparative religions and a BA in Near Eastern languages and civilizations.

Rob is currently an instructor for TorahResource Institute, where he teaches courses on the 2nd Temple Period, Rabbinic Literature, Judaism, Koine Greek, and Aramaic. He has also written articles and presented on ancient Jewish scribal tradition, the Masorah of the Hebrew Bible, and midrashic literature.

Links to some of Rob's online activities...

Messiah Matters video podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MessiahMatters
Rob on the Rock, Rob's personal YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ontherock
TorahResource: https://torahresource.com/
Rob's homepage: https://robontherock.com/
Academic publications: https://washington.academia.edu/RobertVanhoff

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope...
Romans 5:3-4 ESV

There is so much suffering in the world. Poverty, sickness, disaster, oppression... eventually everyone asks why God would allow it. The easy answer is that God has a plan, and we need to trust him. That's true, of course, but it's more complicated than that. In an online discussion of Romans 5:3-4, the Common Sense Bible Study community tackled this question.

From Jay Carper at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) and American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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⁣For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void.
Romans 4:14 ESV

Does this mean that anyone who tries to keep the Law of Moses is automatically disinherited by God? Of course, not! As Paul wrote, "I wouldn't have known that coveting is wrong if the Law had not said, 'Do not covet.'"

Obedience to God's commandments, even if they were given through Moses, is a good thing so long as you don't think that you can earn salvation by them.

This is an excerpt from the weekly Bible study at Common Sense Bible Study (https://CommonSenseBibleStudy.com) with Jay Carper from American Torah (https://www.AmericanTorah.com).

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