Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 1271 | Willie & Jase Robertson’s Homemade Olympic Games Were Shockingly Dangerous

Episode Date: February 17, 2026

With partisan politics taking center stage instead of athletic excellence at the Olympic Games, Jase, Al, and Zach wonder what happened to simple national pride. What was once a rare moment of unity now feels like another front in the culture wars. That frustration leads to a wild look back at the Robertsons’ own dangerously reckless “Backyard Winter Olympics,” where frozen ponds, car hoods, and homemade skis somehow didn’t end in tragedy. Beneath the cultural chaos runs a deeper question: if grace is real, why do we have to worry about doing what’s good and right?  In this episode: 1 John 2, verses 28–29; 1 John 3, verses 1–10; 1 John 4, verse 7; Romans 1, verses 1–5; Romans 5, verses 12–21; Romans 6, verses 1–11; Romans 7, verses 1–6; 1 Peter 1, verses 18–23; Hebrews 11, verse 1 “Unashamed” Episode 1271 is sponsored by: https://meetfabric.com/unashamed — Join the thousands of parents who trust Fabric to help protect their family. https://homechef.com/unashamed — Get 50% off and free shipping on your first box plus free dessert for life! https://rocketmoney.com/unashamed — Join Rocket Money and let them help you reach your financial goals faster. https://chministries.org/unashamed — See why Christians are ditching health insurance for good. Get a simpler alternative at half the cost! http://unashamedforhillsdale.com/ — Sign up now for free, and join the Unashamed hosts every Friday for Unashamed Academy Powered by Hillsdale College Check out At Home with Phil Robertson, nearly 800 episodes of Phil's unfiltered wisdom, humor, and biblical truth, available for free for the first time! Get it on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, and anywhere you listen to podcasts! https://open.spotify.com/show/3LY8eJ4ZBZHmsImGoDNK2l Listen to Not Yet Now with Zach Dasher on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or anywhere you get podcasts. Chapters: 00:00 Olympic Stories & At-Risk Play 08:51 Unashamed at His Coming 13:40 Practicing Sin vs. Occasional Sin 19:10 Dying to Sin 26:20 Baptized Into His Death & Raised to New Life 33:30 Dying to the Law 41:10 Abiding in Christ vs. Lawlessness 48:35 The Obedience of Faith & the “Roman Bracket” 53:30 A Purifying Hope & the New Humanity — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. It's one of my favorite times of the years of the Olympics. Do you all watch the Olympics? You hadn't had TV, so you probably haven't been able to? No, I have TV now, Al, but I went so long without it that we're just, we're just choosing not to watch it. Plus, Al, look. Which is not necessarily a bad thing. You know what? I have lost 10 pounds. in the last three weeks. Breaking news.

Just by not watching TV? Well, I think that was a factor. Yeah. Because, you know, there, when you go on a diet, here's something amazing because I was on a diet for a year. Oh, wow. This has nothing to do. You don't know how many food commercials are on TV.

This has nothing to do with a diet. I have not altered my ingestion. He's moving his body is what he's saying. He's out there chopping wood, chopping wood, chainsawing, carrying limbs. There's smoke coming from my backyard constantly. It's been a week of... Jay, it's why people were not fat 100 years ago.

Exactly. You're working too hard. I mean, you're talking about working out. I'm moving along. Apparently, you're not missing anything, though. I was just reading here that the article here, and this is the headline article that the Olympics may be rigged. and they're demanding an investigation and new judges.

I think it's around the ice skating event. I didn't click on. Yeah, and we watched that one, and they were robbed. It was a bad, it was a bad call. But overall, I mean, I just, I love the stories behind the Olympics. Like, and I have to say, you know, NBC has carried the Olympics for a long time, but I feel like they've gotten better at that, like telling the stories of the people that are competing, because these people are amazing.

There was a story. There's this speed skater, and he won the gold medal. He's 21 years old. But he's from a little farm in Wisconsin, and they showed, they went to the farm. They meet his mom and dad and his sister. And there's a lake back there, and it was full of geese. It's because it's summertime, you know, so there was just geese everywhere on this pond. And then they show a video when he was five years old.

And, of course, it's totally frozen over that same pond. or it's kind of, we would call it more a lake. And this thing was frozen solid. And so the dad goes out there and basically makes a little skating rink on this thing. And they're showing, of course, this little kid's falling down. He's five years old. And then you see him just watch the progression that he got really good at it. Then he started taking it to practice.

And then he spent his whole childhood learning how to speed skate. And then he wins a gold medal. But I don't know. See, I love stuff like that because it's like. Or the Lindsey Vaughn's. She tore ACL and said, I'm going to keep competing, which I don't know how. She's a downhill skier. Yeah, and she's like 42 years old, too.

I mean, she came back. Of course, now she broke her leg. And now they're saying she may have to have it amputated, which is insane. So there's a very much. She might want to come back. Yeah, I would. I just, I don't know. I love the stories.

I love more than in the competition just because this stuff that I never, you know, we're not, we're in front of Louisiana. We just had the ice apocalypse with Jason. We don't get a lot of ice and snow. So all the events are things I've never done. I mean, I skied a little bit. But just it's the idea of the competition, I guess, that I like. And the story is behind the people.

Well, we had that one day, yeah. Remember when we were kids? There's a big long hill going down to my dad. And I think that was not. We had an Olympic day. Yeah. Yep, we skied. We had a big piece of tin that we had torn off of something, probably rusty tin.

We probably got some guys. I think that was off of the root. of my grandparents' house. Yeah, and then Willie took two pieces of siding off of mom and dad's house, and he made skis out of it. I don't know what, you had some kind of board or some kind of wooden, something

you found. Then we had all these Olympic skiing races. Of course, you talk about apocalyptic. We were going off the side of the hill down to the river and going in the edge of the river, which was frozen, and it's a wonder we didn't die. And you survived it. I mean, well, that was

that was the event. It Wasn't so much who won. It was who survived. Who survived? You survived. The prize is you're alive. Well, my kids sent the video of Fred, who's 14, and he's walking out on the pond that has frozen over in the middle of town. But I'm like, this ain't Wisconsin.

And, of course, I'm trying to call him. He's not answering the phone. I'm like, I mean, this is how people die. You know what I mean? I'm like, you don't do it. Two kids die. Do it? I'm like, you don't.

Yeah. But I mean, it's amazing the things that we did and survived, and I don't know how we did. We used to take a, they would take a hood off of a car. Yeah. And this was when I was in college in Arkansas, and it snowed like, I don't know, 10 inches, Searcy, Arkansas. And that my buddy shows up, four-wheel drive pickup truck.

He's got a chain tied to the back of it, which is hooked on to a hood from a car that he got from the junk. So we got on that hood and then we all, and he just took us around town like we were like, I mean, just slinging us around like we're on a tube, you know, the intertudes behind the boat. It was like that kind of experience, but on snow. And I'm just like, I pray my kids don't do what I used to do. But Dr. what, Dr. who was the guy we had on Dr. Hyde? Oh, yeah. He said we're not at risk play. That's what we did. That we lived at risk play. Dad did that same thing in Junction City when we were up there and he was a school teacher. Jase, you're probably too young to remember it, but they turned a hood over, hooked it to a chain, too. They would take us out. We were kids and they would go safely.

But then when they would do it for each other, they were going 50 miles an hour and turned sideways. And they're sliding, they're sliding out across that thing. They're probably going 100 miles an hour. It was like the other. Who's a man? Who's a man? And that's exactly what it was. And yet they survived.

So that's, I love the Olympics, but, you know, and only get to watch air four years. And so I never watch any of the sports any other time of year. I know people like these sports, but I do enjoy the stories behind it. So just to tie off the Olympic discussion, Jace, there's a, there's a guy on there. There's, he's a skater. I think he's maybe from somewhere in the northeast. But he's kind of been the sensation. And they, and your love his nickname, because I know you love all religious things.

theme nicknames. They call him, and I'm not sure that Snoop Dog may not be the one that gave him the nickname. He's the first one I heard say it, but they're calling him the quad god. What does that mean? Well, he does like these quadruple things, and nobody can, you know, before the triples, the thing, but he can do the quad and he does multiple and he does backflips on the ice. And he's just doing things that's never been done. And so Snoop dog was calling him with the quad god, and now it's kind of caught on.

And I guess that's where it started, but maybe they already called him that. But I said, Jason, love that because I know you love all spiritual things. Well, we have somebody called Snoop Dog, given the commentary on the Olympics now. He is, he is, Snoop Dog is, they's snooping around Milan. That's what the segments are called. Anybody do the Iron Lotus on the, that's that, you pull that move off. That is the greatest move in figure skating ever. The Iron Lotus.

I think what happened to me while the Olympics fell out of favor, with me is they ask them all these political questions and cultural questions. And that's unfortunate. Let them go over there and do the events and just leave it at that. And that's people stirring up. You're right. Because I never even knew they did press conferences. And they're doing these press conferences.

They ask them about Trump. And of course, you know, how Trump is, he's a lightning rod. So you got ones that don't like him. But I thought, why you're there competing for the country, how about we just don't do politics? I mean, let's just leave that out for two weeks. Can we not just be Americans for two weeks and just enjoy it? And I just kind of had to ignore it. As you're right, it just made me mad when that happened because I was like, whether it's

your guy or not your guy, like let's just don't talk about politics for two weeks. Everybody's wearing the American flag. They're representing all of us. Even if you don't agree with me politically, I'm rooting for you, you know, to win. So it's like, I just don't like, I don't like that either. I don't either. It shouldn't be. Well, let's get to first John.

We were talking recently about this idea of the coming of Christ, Jace. And really, where we left off is the perfect passage for that conversation to kick it back up again. That's first John 228. And we read this before because we talked about this concept of unashamed. So, Al, when was the first time you got your first term life insurance policy? A gentleman who was selling term life insurance gifted me. my first policy. And he taught me a very valuable lesson of the importance of having life insurance.

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Christ and the suddenness of it. And then he says in verse 29, if you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. So he's kind of returning to this conversation about right and wrong and lifestyle versus non-lifestyle. And that's what this next discussion is going to be about. And it really goes down to verse 10. I'm just going to read it. And then we can talk about it. He says, how great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world, and here's this world within the world again, the reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God. And what we will be has not yet

been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. And then verse four, which this is a bad translation, by the way, but we'll talk about it. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. They left out a key word there. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. In him is no sin.

No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or not. own him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right. There's back to that concept again, is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin him because God's seed remains in him. He cannot go on sinning because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are, and who the children of the devil are,

anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God, nor is anyone who does not love his brother. Now, this is one of those texts to me that is a little bit difficult, especially if it's not quite translated, right, because it seems to contradict some of the earlier things that John has said about what sin is and who we are in relationship to that. But I do want to mention that in verse four, that verse that says, let me find it in my notes to see.

So here's what the actual Greek says. Everyone who practices, and that word practices is poion. Everyone who practices sin practices lawlessness as well. Indeed, sin is lawlessness. But do you see the difference in just that one, when you leave that word out? It's not just that the idea that we're never going to sin. is the idea of a practicing lifestyle of sin,

which is what the verse is talking about and not just the other. So I think that's been a misunderstanding, because for years I used to just go to that verse and pluck it out, and you just make it like it's a formula of, you know, you sin, you break the law, and then you kind of go into why you need to become a Christian. But that's not what John's discussing here. He's talking about a lifestyle that's very different from the lifestyle we lived as spirit-filled people.

So I think it's important to mention that, we kind of crank into this text. He says in chapter 1 and verse 10, if you claim you've not sin, you make him out to be a liar. Yeah. So, right. Well, verse 9 says of chapter 1,

if we confess our sins, he's faithful to us. So then when it says here, everyone who practices sin or sins breaks the law, but then he says no one who lives in him keeps on sinning. I think there's the part that, It's hard to wrap your head around.

But when you put all of that together, you're, I think you, you know, I think Romans is helpful, which I know, there's a lot of debate on some of these passages. Because the same thing happens with righteousness. When he says, whoever does what is right, he who does what is righteous, just as he is righteous. but what I've noticed, and you've probably noticed this too, whenever you see God's righteousness, God's faithfulness is always right there. He always talks about doing what's right in connection with faith or slash faithfulness

because the Greek word for faith is translated faith or faithfulness. Well, that's a big difference. because we tend to think Hebrews 111, faith being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see or the evidence of believing in the evidence of things not seen. But then the whole chapter is about

how all these heroes of faith were faithful in the way they live, the way they practiced, in showing a response of God's faithfulness, which I talked about this a little bit in an earlier podcast. So like when you see this in Romans 1 where he says,

for in the gospel, verse 17, a righteousness from God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith from faith to faith, just as it is written, the righteous will live by faith. So what I'm saying is, so when you read the 1st John 3,

and just insert that in there, well are you faithful in your righteousness faithful to who this goes back to this we have a relationship with a being who sees all who knows all and you're included in this fellowship and have his spirit in your body so there's an honesty and a transparency on a minute by minute basis that is happening which is why you have the you confess your sins or you know you do something wrong and then you act like he's not there. Well, you're not being faithful and you're insulting God's obnicious power. I think that's more the idea of you're included in this fellowship of love and forgiveness and his faithfulness because 1st John 1 9 right in between all of that

says he will forgive us our sins and he gives the reason when he says, verse 9, if we confess our sins. Well, here's the point. He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins. So that's the way this kind of works and the way to get your head wrapped around it. So I think it eventually leads to, you know, in Romans, when he's talking about how great the grace of God is, and he goes through a kind of a similar aspect when he, when in Romans 5, where he talks about, you know, our father's Adam, and he brings sin and death to all, not meaning we're inheriting his sin,

but we're just born in this world within a world that is you're going to sin and death happens. Remember all that? And then he's like, well, in Christ, the gift does not like the trespass. Where's that? Verse 15, 515. the trespass of the one man,

how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many. Again, the gift of God is not like the result of one man's sin. The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. So, you know, he talks about how great this grace is, He gets down to the end, verse 20, because this idea about whoever sins breaks the law,

the law was added so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace increased all the more so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Then there's like a pause. This pause is what I think will help us wrap our head around this 1st John 3. because he then, it's like he's writing and he's reading their minds. And so a question comes up, which I think the same question comes up in 1 John. Yep.

He says, well, what shall we say then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? And that really is kind of the question. And when you think about what he said about those, Christ, you will not continue to sin. What does that mean? Well, both those questions are answered in Paul's words here because he says, well, by no means, we died to sin. Well, that's kind of a record scratch moment, because you're like, well, wait a minute, he's writing to people who are still alive. Obviously, you wouldn't write a letter to dead people. But I guess he did.

He did. And now he's actually writing saying we died to saying, well, how are you writing if you're dead? So, Zach, I guess the one thing we can all agree on his life is busy. Yeah. You've got a house full of kids. You're working. You're going to practice. And the one thing you don't want to do is overthink dinner.

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We died to sin. Well, how can we live in it any longer? Which makes sense when you say, he who's in Jesus, he's no longer sinning. Because whatever that guy was that was doing the sinning, he's dead. You died. And Jay, to your point. he's not saying, and we died so we'll never sin again, he said, live in it any longer. That's the key phrase.

That's what motivates you. Yeah, that was my point. So then, now he brings up baptism, or don't you know that all of us who are baptized into Christ Jesus, which is not unlike this anointing that John brought up in 1, John 2. And I went back to when Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Well, when did that take place? when he got baptized. Ironically enough, he had never done a miracle until that happened.

His ministry didn't start until that happened. So which I'm just saying something happened there that changed his mode of operation on representing the father. And by the way, Jay's that's also, that was right before he was personally, confronted by Satan himself in the wilderness. That happened right after that as well. So that had not happened yet either. And yet now that had happened. And so that gave him apparently a better way to handle that situation.

So the point I want to make is this verse three. Don't you know that all of us were baptized into Christ Jesus? Now here's a phrase. We're baptized into his death. Whoa. now we're looking at Jesus's death and we're like we're somehow getting into that well what happened at his death well he forgave us all our sins atonement yeah sins were removed and you're like so he says we died to sin well how did you die to sin because somehow you were you got into his death oh wow

through this baptism, and we were there for buried. That guy is dead and buried, which is why in 1st John, he's going to kind of echo. You know, we've talked about this before. John keeps saying the same things in different ways over and over. So when he gets to chapter 4, watch what he says in verse 7. Dear friends, let us love one another,

for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God. What's he bringing up being born? Well, this sounds like somehow you're born again because if you died, well, how are you still here? Yeah. Oh, I was born again. Now we've moved on from Adam's legacy

because we are now in a new man, the human who showed what a human should really look like, is Jesus. And that old guy, he's gone. I'm part of a new humanity because of Jesus. In fact, Paul even calls him a new Adam. I mean, it's... New Adam.

First Christmas 15 discusses this in detail. We're now part of a heavenly human who's not... Who really came to destroy death itself. which is how we can be a new man. And Ephesians 2 brings up this new humanity. So it says, whoever does not love does not know God because God is love. So we've been born of God and we now know God

and we're in an intimate relationship with God and he knows everything we did, everything we're doing and everything we will do. And that's part of this relationship and this new man. But just to continue on the Roman 6, in verse 4 it says, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,

we too may live, and there's that little word, new, a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him and his resurrection. When I was looking for future consequences of this happening while you're on the planet. You can die, be buried, and be raised, and you will be raised again.

For we know, verse 6, that our old self, contrasting to the new life, was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with. Or there's an alternate, English translation rendered powerless that we should no longer be slaves to sin

wasn't there a song about that somewhere I'm no longer a slave because anyone who has died has been freed from sin and now he's just taking this like as a matter of fact now if we die with Christ we believe that we will also live with him my whole point is this all started when he said what shall we say then shall we shall we sin so that grace may increase i think we we had a little trouble with that in the audience that

john was writing to and guess what i think we still had that trouble today yeah and said churches we're like oh well if you know if god god will forgive me let me go do what i want to now And then I can get forgiveness later after I've done a little messing around here, you know. But as you know, Jay, it reminds me of the question that or statement dad made to Bill Smith when he first shared the story of Jesus with him. He said, it almost sounds too good to be true. That's the equivalent to me of that question. What shall we say then? It almost sounds too good to be true.

And you remember Smith said, oh, it's true, but it is too good for us. But it's true. And I like that concept. The idea is that the reality of it, because if you think about it, Jay's, the reason John brings in the idea of lawlessness with it is this is what the lifestyle lends itself to. If you think about it, why do people make laws? You know, new laws are made every day and they're made because someone is doing something wrong and it's not yet a law, but people are suffering because of it. And so they think, well, we got to stop this behavior. and so we make a law.

And then we make the laws. And somebody that then does this, they're breaking the law, therefore they have to pay a penalty. It's like, you can't do that anymore. Someone's being harmed as a result of it. That's lawlessness. Well, right. And so that's the reason people make laws.

And guess what, Al? Paul was following your train of thought. Because we think, well, wait a minute. Well, because I'm still under law. I mean, why would he say that 1st John 3, 4, you're like, what did he mean by that? Let me read that again. He who's in Christ, what does it say?

Well, let me read you the ESV, which is probably Zach's version. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. That's a much better chance. I read Roman 6, but you know what he got to in Romans 7, which is very interesting. Yeah. He says, first verse, don't you know, brothers, for I am speaking to men who know the law. You said, what is the law?

It is God's decree of this is how you should live, right? Right. And now, he's speaking in Romans of the Mosaic law that was, what, over 600 of them recording, but there were more. A moral code. A moral code. That the law has authority. over a man only as long as he lives. I mean, obviously, if you're dead,

you're no longer under the law as you're dead. But then he says, for example, by law, a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. Well, we get that. But if her husband dies, well, she's released from the law of marriage. She can marry somebody else, right? But some other passage says, but he must be a believer.

her. But anyway, so then if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she's called an adulterous. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not adulterous, even though she marries another man. You're like, what does this have to do with our relationship in Jesus? Well, he answers it in verse four. So my brothers, you also, now watch this. You died to sin in Roman 6, verse 2. We read it. Now he says, so my brothers, you. You also, you also, now, he says, so my brothers, You also died to the law through the body of Christ that you might belong to another. To him who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature or the flesh,

the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies so that we, bore fruit for death. But now by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we may serve in the new way of the spirit

and not in the old way of the written code. Now, he then goes in to say, well, this is going to be a struggle. You know, Zach, you know, I'm the guy paying the bills, but my grandkids will open up duplicate things. And then I find out I'm

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That's rocketmoney.com slash unashamed. Rocketmoney.com slash unashamed. And he even describes his own personal struggle before he embraced Christ. And what's interesting about it today is Paul describing himself as Saul thought of himself as a righteous man. I mean, very self-righteous, but he thought of himself as a man who was doing the will of God in hurting people, torturing people, killing people, all in the name of God. So, I mean, he thought he was even a religious person. And then he mentions this struggle that he really didn't understand at all because he had been put to death. Because he says at the end of that passage, you're talking about in Romans 7.

But thanks be to God through Christ Jesus that he delivered this wretched man. And that's the idea of realizing who you are when you're outside of Christ. I mean, that's the point. You know, the point that's what John's making. One of the key words here in the text in First John three is the word abide. It gives a better picture of it because I think to your point where we started this whole conversation was, is John contradicting himself? Because he says, if we say we're without sin, we're a liar.

but then he says, well, there's no sin in Christ. So if I'm in Christ, then theoretically there should be no sin in me. Yet there is sin in me because he just said, if he claimed to be without sin, your life. So that's kind of the dilemma. But I think what he's saying here, a better way of reading it, is that word abide. And so he says there's no sin in Christ. It's almost like a branch that wants to survive not connected to the vine. Or like I used to work in the watermelon fields when I was a kid.

and watermelons grow on a vine. And when they're forming, if you just cut the vine, well, they're not going to continue to grow. They're going to wilt and die. They grow because they're connected to the actual vine. And the vine that's a source of how they get their nutrients and their life source. And so what he's saying is, is like, in Christ there's no sin. So it's to the degree that you're connected to him.

So it's almost like a statement of reality or like a fish has to be in. water. So you have to be in water, speaking to the fish, you can breathe. There's breath in the water. Yeah, it's not, it's not like, well, can a fish jump out of the water? Well, yeah, and he won't be breathing when he's out of the water. And if he stays out there long enough and he practices being out of the water, eventually he's going to die. So the picture is much more about what is the lifestyle that you're practicing? And is your practice and your formation, a practice of being connected. in the person of Christ, being in him? Or is your practice, a practice of evil or sinning, which is lawlessness, which in the end

is death? That's the picture that he's really painting here. And what it does is, and he does this in First John, is he's helping us reimagine what the commands of God are. And he's actually making the case that they're not a burden. These are not, like these commands that you've been given, these aren't burdens that God has placed on you. That's what the devil told Adam and Eve.

You know, oh, he told you not to do that because, yeah, I mean, he didn't want you to know what he knows. He didn't want you to be like him. He's holding out on you. That's not the picture. And so John is explaining why that's true, that this is not a command from God that's meant to hurt you. It's meant to lead you into abiding with him and being connected to. the life source. Yeah, let me read verse 9,

Zach, because it says just what you just said. First John 3-9. No one born of, and this is again the ESV. I don't know why the NIV leaves out the word poion, which is because that makes it all makes sense. Here's what it says, again, in the ESV and first time three-nine. No one born of God makes a practice. There's that word again, poion, of sinning for God's seed abides in him.

and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. So that's what he's talking about who you live for, what you live for, what lives in you. That's the change. And look, it makes you better. I mean, it makes you better in every decision. I can't tell you how many times this last week alone. Lisa and I were talking about a situation and it was usually something that was going to cost us some money or, you know, some thing we were going to go speak at or something. And I found myself saying this several times this week.

yeah, but, babe, this is the right thing to do. And it always cost me money. It was always something I didn't want to do because it was going to be, you know, negative for me. But I kept finding myself saying, yeah, but it's the right thing to do. Nobody was standing over me to make that decision, but something lives and abides in me that makes me want to do the right thing by people, even if it costs me something. And especially when it costs me something, because that's when we make the selfish decision. Well, that's why I keep bringing up faithfulness. Zach keeps bringing up Abide.

I'm like, abide. What does Abide mean? To live in? Thank you. You've moved in. That's why righteousness is turned to faithfulness. I mean, the reason I read the illustration that Paul gave about marriage,

let me just think about this. So you give your life to Christ and you're like, well, just give me a book, tell me what I have to do, and I'll figure it out. No, that's not what happened. That'd be like my wife. I'm like, just make a list.

You may go now. I'll follow the list. It's not going to work. We're here. This is more than, all right, give me the rules, and now I go home, and I'll read over the rules. And God has said, no, no, no, I'm moving in the house with you. You're like, oh, you're with me. Like, well, what room are you going to be in?

Nope. I'm going to be in you and we're going to be in the same house at the same time. And we'll see how this faithfulness goes. I'm here to stay. And that's what you do with your wife. There's nowhere to go.

That's why you have conversation. After a while, the silent treatment won't work. We're living together. When problems happen, it has to be worked out on a daily basis. It's, it's, he, he picked the one relationship that is the closest to what we have, which is you and your wife. And it's like, you're not even, you know, the guy dies, okay, you're free.

Why is he bringing up that illustration about law? And it, because it's all about faithfulness or abiding. I mean, you can say that, but it's like he's moved in to stay. And it has to be in the right order. the reason we're faithful is because he's faithful. You can't get being faithful in trying to do what's right, because that's why we try to wrap our heads around it. So you read the original Greek.

I realize why you're reading it. It's like a practice. But still, it's coming from his faithfulness, and you hear about it and what he did in Jesus. That's why I win Roman. I'd like to just start off and read the first paragraph of Romans 1. because I was reading five and six and seven, but he starts with this idea,

and I think we just read over it and we miss it. But when Paul wrote this letter, he said, look, I am called to be an apostle and set apart for the, and he calls it the gospel of God, which I find that interesting. Because most time we say, well, this is all about the gospel of Jesus, the good news of Jesus.

But it's interesting, why is he saying the gospel of God? Here's the good news of God, because you're thinking the father here, which I think that's what it's saying. But then he says the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. So he goes back to the Old Testament where the law is found and recorded. But watch what he says. Regarding his son, who as to his human nature,

was a descendant of David. You're like, the gospel of God is somehow tied to his son becoming a human. Because why? We have a problem. And he addresses that when he gets to chapter 5. Because the first Adam, the first human, made some bad decisions and caused some consequences for the rest of humanity. So what does God do?

What is the good news? He becomes a human. and you can trace his human nature as a descendant of David. But what's this? And who through the spirit of holiness, and I love this alternate translation in the Greek, or was appointed to be the son of God with power by his resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ our Lord and it just shows you one you can't just stop at his death in him becoming human you can't stop there you can't stop at just his death he was declared with power to be the son of God by his resurrection from the dead

Jesus Christ our Lord through him and for his namesake we've received grace this is the whole good news of God, him becoming a human and apostleship, to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. So it's like he starts off with his faithfulness despite all of man's unfaithfulness, which is why he starts in later on in this chapter,

are saying, what about all the people from Adam to Abraham? They were faithless. So I've got five kids and having a big family like that, I'm telling you, you've got to pay attention real quick to where your money is going, especially when it comes to health care because traditional health insurance just keeps climbing and climbing. My family and I switch to Christian healthcare ministries, and we haven't looked back. CHM is a Christian alternative to health insurance. It comes in at about half the cost, which immediately freed up real room in our budget. But the bigger win was freedom because we're not stuck in some tiny network. We get to choose the doctor, the surgeon, the hospital.

It actually makes sense for our family. Since CHM is a nonprofit ministry, I'm not paying into a profit machine. I'm joining into a community of believers who share each other's medical burdens through giving and prayer. And that aligns with how I want to lead my family and how I want to live my life. CHM has four flexible low-cost programs for every stage of life, and you can enroll or switch in any time. Plus, you get access to CHM's care solutions for virtual appointments, prescription savings, surgery support, and more. For us, it's been a smart move both financially and spiritually. And I want to teach my kids to be great stewards of what God's given us,

and I want to teach them to live in these embodied communities. And see why so many believers are taking a leap of faith with a Christian alternative to health insurance. start today by visiting CH Ministries.org slash unashamed and use the promo code wellness for a 50% credit toward your first month. That's CH Ministries.org slash unashamed and use promo code wellness. You read the book of Romans through that lens. I've called this the Roman bracket because when you read the book of Romans, if you were to think about, you know how when you write something and you put it in brackets, you'll put the little parentheses around it. you bracket the whole thought in.

If you read the book of Romans, the whole letter, there's a phrase that is a bracket, it's a bracket. It's in the first and the last paragraph of the book of Romans. And it's Paul essentially making the point that, hey, I'm kind of a different kind of apostle. And here's my role. My role is to bring the Gentiles,

and here's the phrase, to the obedience of faith, which is you just use that phrase. He starts the Book of Romans with that phrase. And he literally says, this is what I'm about about to tell you about. This is my job, you know, my role is to bring the Gentiles to the obedience of faith. And then he ends with almost the exact same phrase of his calling is to bring the Gentiles or the nations to the obedience of faith. That's the phrase obedience of faith. And so really what the Book of Romans does is it does two things.

It explains to the Gentile and to the Jewish world and the Gentile world of how Christ is going to bring the Gentiles into this kingdom. And then two, it explains what that phrase actually means, the obedience of faith, which is what we've been talking about here, abiding with him. And it's a whole lot more about a quality of life than it is. It is about quantity too, but it's about a particular type of quality of life. with him. All right. Well, I wanted to read that just to say. So when he says, like, think about this phrase.

We haven't addressed this one. When he says in 1st John 3, 3, 3, everyone who has this hope, being a child of God, and when he appears, you know, being like him, which I hope will devote the next podcast to that one thought. Yeah, that's good. But while we're in the context of this battling with sin, and our position.

In verse 3 of chapter 3, it says, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Well, I can't purify myself. What does that mean? That's your first reaction. I can't not sin. How can I do?

I can't do what's right. Well, those are the three things he just said you need to be doing. You're like, well, how is this, how can this be? Well, take what Peter said about this. This sounds awfully familiar with this faith that comes from obedience. 1.2 says, Now that you have purified yourselves.

Well, what had he just said? He just said in verse 18 of chapter 1 of 1st Peter, for you know that it is not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, handed down to you, see? Think Adam. But with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect, he was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.

Through him, you believe in God who raised him from the dead. There's where the power is and glorified him. And so your faith and hope are in God, now that you've purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. Now, what's where he goes? For you have been born again. Same concept. Just like First John when he says, you've been born a God.

You've been born again. Not a perishable seed, but of imperishable. Yeah. So you got Adam and you got Christ. Through the living and enduring, and watch what he says here. Word of God, which is where John started this whole thing. You're now in fellowship with the Word of life. God's communication in human form is named with Jesus.

I just think it's fascinating that all these things cross-reference, and you start to realize, oh, when you start to realize, oh, when you start, surrender yourself to Christ and you're anointed with the Holy Spirit. There's a death that occurs. And there's a born-again phase that's happening. And I think people look at it and kind of laugh, you know, and say, oh, look at these people. They're going through these, you know, they're singing songs about, you know,

God and where is he at? You know, they're actually dunking people underwater. This kind of, what are they? they do it. We're becoming part of a new humanity. There's a, there's a new world in this old world that will live again. And while we're here, we have hope and joy and love, all these types of principles. I was going to say, I love the concept of a purifying hope. That's such a beautiful way of expressing it. You know, when you think about it, the idea that it brings that purity that you're that you're looking for that people want in their lives. I mean,

that's what hope in Christ does, and that's how it connects. And I love what you said. Think about the three sources we're talking about here. We're talking about John and we're talking about Peter. And we know they were just two fishermen. They were Jewish fishermen. And but they, you know, not very extraordinary, just ordinary men. They're described, unschooled. And yet, and then you got this Paul who was Saul, who was a Pharisee, who had studied his whole life, who persecuted people and wouldn't even let the shadow of a Gentile cross him because he was so legalistic in the way he approached his Judaism. And yet they all, to your point, Jays, had this message that sinks together because they all are in twelf by the Holy Spirit. I mean, it's just, it's a beautiful, beautiful picture.

Well, that's why I wanted to answer all these questions. So when somebody says, oh, you do what's right, how? Because he's right. you're faithful why well how are you faith because he's faithful you're claiming to how do you purify yourself well because he was pure I mean this is no matter what you ask me that's what I'm going to say I'm going to say well I'm in him it's like yeah well how are you in him

through faith I have his spirit in me well I want to see it well just follow along behind me because I'm going to point towards him I mean, that's what we're doing. I mean, that's the garden, right? I mean, go back to the garden. The sin at the beginning was God says, don't eat that, that fruit on that tree. All the rest of it, let's go.

Let's have communion together. And a lot of writers and commentators on the, kind of the story of Genesis, have talked about this, that that original sin, what was at the core of it was it was to eat the fruit for the sake of the fruit. because the Bible says that they saw that the fruit was pleasing to the eye. And so that little nugget there, what it tells us is that they wanted to eat the fruit for the sake of it, not for the sake of communing with God.

And so when you talk about abiding, it's like it's not even something. It's not like we're complicated too much. It's just like the world was given to man to cultivate an exercise dominion over in communion with God. So God's the head of it. We're like vice regents. And so really to not abide in God is just to say, I'm not going to accept the design that I was designed for. I'm not doing that.

I'm going to do something else instead. I'm going to go alone. To live with God, to abide with him, is to actually live in your natural state, your real state, how you were really intended. It's just to just do what you were made to do. That's all he's saying. Just do what you's moving. Which is why we should.

sing happy birthday a second time. I mean, look, you're, okay, let's sing happy birthday. But that's Adam's birthday at that point. God gave you life. But guess what? It's not going to end well for you until you sing the next happy birthday. Yeah. And it changes the way you view people, which we're out of time, but that's why we're going to get into, as we keep going through the books, such a thing about loving one another and how that's what looks like this lifestyle we live in instead of just serving ourselves. So we'll stretch this out a little bit more next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast. Help us out by leaving a rating and review on Apple podcast. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click the little

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