Category: Devotions

TUESDAY March 19^th

Romans 8:18

‘For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.’

We looked at the previous verse to this one back on March 14^th, which says, ‘providing we suffer with him in order that we may be glorified with him’.

When it comes to suffering for the cause of the gospel, or for the name of Christ, or for being a follower of Jesus, Paul says the suffering is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us. Paul is not undermining suffering, he is not saying that it is something trivial and not worth concerning ourselves about, he is showing to us that however bad it may be, what we will have in eternity will outweigh it all. In 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Paul wrote ‘For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.’

Our problem can or may be that our present seems to be so far removed from eternity which we consider as being a long way into the future, what we must do is to ensure that we have a firm and a present hope that is firmly set upon that which will be ours in the future based upon the promises of God.

The promises of God are sure and one of them is that as we suffer, God will guard us by his power! Listen to 1 Peter 1:5-7 ‘who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’

I have often said that so far we have it relatively good at present here in the UK, but the signs around us seem to indicate that as the days get even darker, we who serve the true and living God will see the powers of darkness rising up against us, we need to be ready, we need to be grounded in the word of God, we need to be continually found in being in the place where we can be equipped and strengthened to resolve in our hearts to stand firm.

May we also consider others who are suffering at this time, being persecuted in so many different ways for their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, praying that God will guard them according to his promises and pray that God will again visit our own nation, we need our own nation to be revived again, for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit causing the tide to turn again and that we will return to righteousness.

We also learn from the example of Jesus who suffered far and beyond anything we can even begin to imagine, but it says of him ‘Who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame,’ Hebrews 12:2

MONDAY March 18^th

Romans 8:16

‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God’.

I want to take from this sentence for today the words ‘The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit’, and although here it is a confirmation that we are the children of God, we can also conclude from the word of God that the Holy Spirit witnesses to our spirit in other ways as well.

The Holy Spirit has not only been given to us for equipping and empowering but also to give us a witness in our spirit regarding spiritual matters and to the outworking of our Christian life. If we are willing to seek it and to ask for it, he gives to us inner confirmation, toward that which is God’s will for us.

In the book of Acts, we have an account of Paul along with Timothy and Silas embarking on a mission, but the Holy Spirit gave to them a witness, we do not know how, which was sufficient to stop them from preaching the word in Asia and prevented them from going to Bithynia. As a result, they came down instead to Macedonia, where they entered one of the leading cities, Philippi, resulting in a new Church being established. As a result, we have in our Bible’s today, a letter that Paul would later write to them, which has encouraged believers down through the centuries ever since.

It is vital that we also listen out sensitively for the leading and the prompting of the Holy Spirit, asking him to give us witness in our spirit that we are acting and living according to what he is desiring for us. Waiting for the witness that may give us a yes or a no, the witness that may say wait awhile or act now, the witness that will if we are truly sensitive toward it will stop us when we are heading the wrong path and put us in the right direction.

In Galatians, after Paul has spoken about the fruit of the Spirit, he continues to say, ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit’.

May we learn to live by and keep in step with the Spirit, listening to his promptings, as he moves us forward in our daily walk, allowing him to witness with our spirit, this is the way, walk in it.

FRIDAY March 15^th

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 am going back to the middle of these verses to ‘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!”’

We have another mention here of the Holy Spirit, and here it is to remind us that the Holy Spirit does not cause us to fear! In Christ, because we are no longer under condemnation we do not have to fear, instead we can come before God, not trembling, expecting to stand before him with a stick in his hand to beat us, but to come before him as children would come before a loving and caring father. We say to him ‘Abba! Father!’

Paul reminded the Galatians of the very same thing, Galatians 4:6 ‘And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”’

In Mark 14:36, as Jesus was faced with going to Calvary, Mark records that he prayed this way ‘And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”’

You see the connection that Paul is making? In Christ we have become adopted into the family. Therefore, just as Jesus could come before God and say ‘Abba, Father’, so can we. We are heirs of the Father; we are joint heirs with the Son.

Isn’t it wonderful to know that we are adopted into the family of God, we can call him ‘Our Father, who art in heaven’, we can come to him, knowing that even before we ask, he knows what we need, and as our Abba, as our Father, he cares for each one of us and will meet our needs as we ask just as Jesus did, in  accordance to his will.

THURSDAY March 14^th

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 19^th.

WEDNESDAY March 13^th

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.’

The flesh owes us absolutely nothing! Put simply the flesh, the desires of the flesh will only lead to one end, and that is of death. But Paul says, the Spirit leads to life. I know which I would prefer!

These verses again like the previous group of verses were difficult to break down so I will include them as a whole and consider them over a few devotions.

Paul has more good news, and it is this, that living by and being led by the Spirit not only leads to life, but also brings us into the wonderful position of becoming and being called the sons of God, we have become the children of God!

Sonship and being the children of God is a theme that Paul touches on elsewhere in his letters and was also a subject that John liked to speak about.

The first mention is by John in his gospel, where he reminds us that Jesus came into this world, but his own, that is the Jewish people who had been looking for the promised and long awaited for Messiah, rejected him, this led to Jesus going to Calvary and then John says ‘But to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God’ John 1:12. But there was an essential requirement, they needed to be born of God, and this is a reference to being born again by the Spirit of God (v13),  ‘. . .for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith’ Galatians 3:26.

He gave the right; as we have been born again, we not only have the right to become the children of God, but we also have the rights to everything that is linked to being a son or a daughter of God.

Listen again to what verse 17 says ‘and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ . . .’ tomorrow we will see what this rests upon, ‘provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

TUESDAY March 12^th

Romans 8:11

‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.’

As Paul continues to talk about the activity and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer in this verse, which is one of my favourite verses in this chapter, he reminds us of both the present activity and the future activity of the Holy Spirit in us.

Firstly, we are presently living in this flesh, our human bodies, which are decaying and will one day die because of sin, yet at the very same time, by the Spirit we have been made alive! This echoes what Paul had to say in Ephesians 2 where he talks about us as being dead in the trespasses and sins but now have been made alive with Christ. And as a result, the Spirit lives in us. This is good news, but the good news gets even better!

For if (and he does) the Spirit of him (that is the Spirit of God) who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, then we have not only been made spiritually alive in the present, but the day is coming when the same Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies which will have died, this to me speaks of the future, the wonderful resurrection day when as we saw as we were going through 1 Corinthians 15 that all those who have died in Christ will one day be raised to life everlasting. The Spirit will give life to our mortal bodies, and instantaneously the mortal will be miraculously changed to become immortal. Just as Christ was raised, so too shall all who have come to put our faith and trust in him, all who have the Spirit of God dwelling within them.

I am not going to enlarge more on this subject as I have already done this in looking at the great resurrection chapter, but here let us just stop and consider the words in this verse, ‘If the Spirit of him . . . dwells in you’. When we fully grasp hold of what this means, to quote Paul again, we are the temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16), it should cause us to seek with all our hearts to be temples that are worthy and fit for the presence of the Spirit of God.

‘Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body’, 1 Corinthians 6:19–20.

MONDAY March 11^th

Romans 8:9–10

‘You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.’

Well, Paul seeks to underline that if we have truly been born again, then not only are we now no longer under condemnation, but the Spirit of God dwell in us.

I mentioned when I started the devotions from this chapter, that it is a chapter that makes much mention of the Holy Spirit. There is no doubt that we cannot get away from the fact that everything to do with salvation, the new-birth and the new life that we have is drenched in or applied to us by the Holy Spirit.

Maybe we emphasise so much concerning God the Father and Jesus the Son that we tend to side-line the Holy Spirit as if for some reason he is not quite so important! But he is! I shared while speaking a little while back something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in Scripture, he was there hovering over the face of the waters at the very beginning, he was continually working throughout the Old Testament, and we of course see how he was very evident in the formation of the Church on the day of Pentecost and with the Church throughout the book of Acts.

And he is very much active and involved in redemption, Jesus himself said that a man needs to born again by the Spirit, and although it was Jesus who procured our redemption, the Holy Spirit comes to regenerate us when we come by faith to Jesus, and after regenerating us, that is transforming us into new creations, he desires to be involved, active in our lives as the children of God! So much so that he wants to be in us, and to lead us, and to continue to ensure that each day we become more and more like Jesus.

Without the Spirit we would still be dead and in our sins, without the Spirit we would constantly stumble and fall, without the Holy Spirit we would be no different than we were in our fallen state, for as Paul says in verse 10 the Spirit is life because of righteousness. He works in us and through us all the benefits of the Cross of Christ.

FRIDAY March 8^th

Romans 8:5–8

‘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.’

It was difficult in knowing where to break up verses 2 through to verse 11 as Paul is taking us through something which is so essential regarding us being those who are no longer under condemnation and who have been placed into the incredible position of being in Christ.

The essential he is teaching us is that we should have our minds set upon the things of the Spirit and not upon the things of the flesh. We live according to the Spirit and not according to the desires of the flesh.

We could list several things that could hinder us in our daily walk with Jesus, and maybe perhaps, the greatest enemy is the flesh! And Paul doesn’t beat around the bush, he says that the flesh, or satisfying the desires of the flesh leads to death. He even says that to live in this way is also to be hostile toward God!

If we don’t get the message which Paul is portraying, then a little later in Scripture, the Holy Spirit has seen to it that we get another reminder of the dangers of living according to the desires of the flesh, and this certainly should make us sit up and think about it, it is from the pen of James, our Lord’s brother, in James 4:4-5 and I will put in brackets into the text what I consider to be the equivalent from Paul ‘You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world (living according to the flesh, setting your minds on the things of the flesh) is enmity with God.’

The flesh and the Spirit are opposites, they are a complete contrast, they are worlds apart!  For the flesh is death, the Sprit is life, the flesh is carnal the Spirit is spiritual, the flesh is self-seeking, and self-satisfying while the Spirit means to be God centred and God glorifying.

Paul is very clear. That a life that is lived according to the flesh cannot please God.

I will close this devotion with some further words from the pen of Paul in Galatians 6:8 ‘For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.’

May God help us to be men and women who desire to live according to the Spirit with our minds set upon the things of the Spirit.

THURSDAY March 7^th

Romans 8:2–4

‘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, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.’

There are two laws mentioned in these verses, the law of the Spirit of life and the law of sin and death.

The one, the law of the Spirit of life has released us from the law of the other, which was that of sin and death.

We were all under the law of sin and death, this was because of the entrance of sin into the world through Adams disobedience to the command of God. As Paul has already written in Romans, ‘The wages of sin is death’ (Romans 6:23). Not one of us through any effort of our own can escape the consequences of sin which is death. But God has put a new law into action, the law of the Spirit which gives to us life through the Lord Jesus Christ.  God put this new law into action by sending his Son into the world, made in the likeness of sin and flesh, (John 1:1,14) that is God became a man, so that by going to the Cross, he may condemn sin in the flesh, the flesh of his own body, so that the just demands of God could be met.

How could this new law in the Spirit become effective? Well, Jesus in becoming a man, was not only born through miraculous means that meant he was born sin free, but he also lived a sinless life, which meant he could die as an atoning sacrifice for our sin, and Christ, not only lived according to the law, but he also fulfilled it. Therefore, we can come by grace to be saved, not through any effort of our own, but by and through that which Christ has done on our behalf, and whereas we could not keep the law, Christ has kept it on our behalf.

It is the law of sin and death that keeps us under condemnation, but the law of the Spirit of life taking away our sin also removes the condemnation from that sin. Therefore, we can say as we saw in verse one, ‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.’

Which law are you under as you read this devotion?

 

If you have never come to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then you are still under the law of sin and death, therefore you are still under condemnation and under the real and definite threat of death, today you can know what it is to come under the law of the Spirit of life, and to do so, you need first to acknowledge that you are a sinner, and to repent of your sin and accept that Christ alone can forgive you and give to you eternal life. For, it is only those who have truly known what it is to be born again by the Spirit that will know what it is to be set free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death and be brought under the law of the Spirit of life.

WEDNESDAY March 6^th

Romans 8:1

‘There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are Christ Jesus’ the NIV also has ‘who do not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit.’

I have returned to this verse again, for as you will have noticed, I have added onto the text from the ESV, the additional text that is to be found in the NIV and the KJV, but not in the NLT or the CSB.

The additional text is like a caveat to the first statement, a warning if you like that says that if we want to continue in a state of not being under condemnation, then we must live according to the Spirit.

If we claim to be no longer under condemnation, then we must show it through the kind of life that we live and the choices we make. We cannot claim as we learn from 2 Corinthians 5:17 to be a new creation if we are still living as we were as the old creation!

Being free from condemnation means that we have not only been saved, or justified, we have also become new creations who now seek to live according to the Spirit, this means that we learn to say no to anything that would bring discredit to our testimony, discredit to the gospel and discredit to the one who is our Lord and Saviour.

I said at the commencement of this look into Romans 8 that the Holy Spirit is mentioned 20 times, this must be a good pointer for us that the Christian life can only and must only be lived out with the help of the Holy Spirit. A while back I used an illustration while preaching about the lane assist function in a lot of newer cars. When switched on it tugs the steering to tell you that you are going outside the lanes that have been marked. If you remember I said that I find it to be a nuisance and so I tend to switch it off! I illustrated that the Holy Spirit is essential in our lives, and we need to allow him to tug at us when we are veering off course, but how many of us try to switch off the tug of the Holy Spirit because what the Spirit desires or even has the right to demand of us is not according to what we want as far as the flesh is concerned!

I need the tug of the Holy Spirit, if we want to use a biblical word, I need the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, we all do, to enable us to stay on the right course, to enable us to live according to the ways of God, to help us to not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.