THURSDAY March 14th
Romans 8:12–17
‘So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 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. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 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.’
I left off yesterday with the phrase from verse 17 ‘provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’
When Paul visited the Churches in Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, it says that this is what he did in Acts 14:22 ‘strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.’
Paul realised that being a follower of Jesus was not going to be easy, it would require that those who have decided to follow Jesus would also need to be determined to not turn back, in the words of a song, it was essential to have the cross before you and the world behind you. Following Jesus especially in the early years of the Church cost, we read of it throughout Acts, as the believers were persecuted and scattered for their faith, and Paul saw this as going through many tribulations, or as suffering with Christ. And following Jesus today, is costing so many of our brothers and sisters a lot, but they are willing to undergo the suffering because they know that it leads to being ‘fellow heirs with Christ’.
Peter also spoke about suffering for the sake of the gospel in his two letters and in 1 Peter 2:21 he wrote ‘For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.’
I am sure that none one of us wants to suffer, but Peter has said in the previous verse ‘But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God’, this means that God is watching what is going on, he sees us as and when we suffer and it is precious to him, he can see the work of grace being outworked in our lives that will eventually lead to us being glorified with Christ. Suffering may not seem to be pleasant for us, it certainly wasn’t for Christ, yet he saw beyond that to the joy that was set before him. May we keep our eyes focused on the finishing line, and if, and when we suffer, we can know that God’s grace will be sufficient for us, and the result is such that we will be able to say with the hymn writer, ‘It will be worth it all, when we see Jesus, life’s trials will seem so small when we see Christ. One glimpse of his dear face all sorrow will erase, so bravely run the race till we see Christ.’
Paul continues in verse 18 with these words ‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’
We will come back to this theme in a few days, March 19th.