Category: Devotions

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.

TUESDAY March 5^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.’

It can be too easy for me to get carried away when preparing the devotions, for the more I explore, the more I want to include, and this first verse is one such verse. It immediately opens up to us the wonderful subject of what salvation has done for us, in a nutshell, condemnation is gone, we who were once guilty as sinners now stand before God as justified, he declares to us ‘Not guilty’.

Paul had received such incredible revelation concerning the doctrine of salvation. We could say, as we consider what he had been as a blasphemer and hater of the gospel message, that he of all people would be excited to celebrate the fact that all condemnation had gone and he had been welcomed, admitted through grace into the family of God.

But this is also our testimony, yes! yours and mine as we have come by faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it doesn’t matter who we were and what we had done, prior to our new birth, in Christ we have been forgiven, and God has made the declaration over us ‘Not guilty’, therefore, today rejoice that you are no longer under condemnation and you too have been included, welcomed into the family of God. This is a subject which Paul will bring us to as we go through this chapter, but for now, from verse 15, ‘. . . you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by who we cry, “Abba! Father!”’

Justification is a major part of the redemption story, for Scripture is very clear that we are all deserving of death and of eternal punishment for our sin.

Our sin which is transgression before the holy God had also separated us from God. There was a great unassailable gulf between us, we could do absolutely nothing to bridge the gulf, but one did and his name is Jesus. He became a man, lived as a man, and he died as a man so that though his death and resurrection the gulf could be spanned. He took our sin—yes, all your sin, all my sin, in fact the sin of the whole world and died as a substitute for us, taking the punishment and the wrath of God toward that sin, so that God could be satisfied, and the justifier of all who would come to him by faith through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the only means of salvation and therefore the only means through which God can look at any man or woman and declare ‘Not guilty’.

Until the ‘Not guilty’ verdict has been declared upon us, we are still under condemnation, many think that they are okay as they stand before God, but the means for which they assume to be okay are not valid, they depend on their own works, self-righteousness, maybe even by adhering to rules and regulations, but the verdict is only made by coming through the way that God has made available, the Lord Jesus Christ.

‘Therefore’ if you are in Christ, that is you have been born again by the Spirit of God, you are no longer under condemnation, it is in the grace of God that you stand.

MONDAY March 4^th

Zechariah 4:6

‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts’.

Well, at first when I came to the end of preparing the devotions on the resurrection chapter, I felt like I had come to an anti-climax, thinking what can I spend the next devotions on that can compare in any way with 1 Corinthians 15? Easy, you may think, but not when this chapter is your favourite of all Scripture!

Well, the answer soon came, for as I was preparing ministry for a Sunday morning, I turned to another of what I would call well-known chapters from the pen of Paul, and it is Romans chapter 8 and immediately had my answer.

This chapter fits in well with the theme I have given for 2024, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the LORD of hosts’, because Romans 8 mentions the Holy Spirit twenty times (ESV).

I wonder how much of this chapter we can recall, not maybe verse by verse, but quote parts of it because it is so well used and well quoted. In fact, it is a great chapter to follow on from 1 Corinthians 15 with because that chapter talks about the incredible victory that is ours because of the resurrection and this chapter, Romans 8 concludes in reminding us that the victory we know and will yet know is such that absolutely nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now with whatever way you want to think of this, consider it this way, for the whole of eternity, which is, well, forever and ever we will be immersed for want of a better way of putting it in the immeasurable love of God! The love that God showed toward us in sending his one and only Son into this world, the love which his one and only Son demonstrated for us at Calvary, the love that is made known to us and shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

So, from the next devotion we will look through this chapter, but to end today, the words of a song which speak to me the wonder of and the reason why we can have full assurance of the hope that both 1 Corinthians 15 and Romans 8 speak of—the wonder of the Cross.

Oh, to see the dawn,

Of the darkest day,

Christ on the road to Calvary,

Tried by sinful men,

Torn and beaten, then,

Nailed to a cross of wood.

 

This, the pow’r of the cross,

Christ became sin for us,

Took the blame, bore the wrath,

We stand forgiven at the cross.

 

Oh, to see the pain,

Written on Your face,

Bearing the awesome weight of sin,

Ev’ry bitter thought,

Ev’ry evil deed,

Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

 

Now the daylight flees,

Now the ground beneath,

Quakes as its Maker bows His head,

Curtain torn in two,

Dead are raised to life,

“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

 

Oh, to see my name,

Written in the wounds,

For through Your suffering, I am free,

Death is crushed to death,

Life is mine to live,

Won through Your selfless love.

 

This, the pow’r of the cross

Son of God, slain for us

What a love! What a cost!

We stand forgiven at the cross

Keith and Krystyn Getty

FRIDAY March 1^st

1 Corinthians 15:58

‘Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.’

Well, after four weeks, we have come to the last verse of this magnificent chapter and to remind ourselves that Paul has written its content to remind the Corinthian believers of those things which are of first importance (vv1-8).

After what has become the longest section in the letter he has written, he says ‘Therefore’, considering what I have just written, which was all about the resurrection, ‘be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord’—and why? Because ‘in the Lord your labour is not in vain’.

How steadfast are we? Are we immovable, or are we easily moved, is our faith and our enthusiasm for our faith swaying as we navigate this world, perhaps too often sailing too close to the wind?

 

To be honest we have it relatively easy in Britain now, but it may not always be the case. Should trouble arise, should persecution come, should opposition come fiercely against us as Christian men and women, will your anchor hold?

 

Well, the answer is dependent upon how much we are fully trusting in Jesus and on how much we are building our lives upon that which matters for eternity rather than that which is but temporal. It will depend upon whether we are truly seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness or are we preferring to seek after the pleasure of this world and our own pursuits.

 

When Paul touched on the second coming in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 he closed it off with these words in verse 18 ‘Therefore encourage one another with these words.’

 

I trust that as I have taken us through this chapter it has been a means of encouragement to us all, but you don’t only need the encouragement that I give, we all need to be in a place where we are encouraging one another! And even so much more today. I conclude 1 Corinthians 15 with the words of a song:

 

 

 

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.

THURSDAY February 29^th

1 Corinthians 15:57

‘But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

I have returned to the verse I closed with in the previous devotion, for I want us to note that everything that we have revelled in within this chapter and all that we are going to enjoy in heaven is all because of God and what he has done for us through our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am reminded of the line of a hymn, ‘Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling’.

Not one of us were able to bring anything to the table regarding our salvation, absolutely nothing, it all needed to be from God and through Jesus.

 

I was lost – God sent a Saviour who found me.

I was hopeless – now all my hope is in Jesus.

I was dead – but now in Christ I have been made alive.

My own righteousness was like filthy rags – His righteousness has been imputed to me.

I deserved hell – but Jesus is going to welcome me into heaven.

 

We could continue the list, and our response to everything we would list should be to give thanks to God from a grateful heart for the incredible victory that is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord.

I am just simply going to leave us with the words of a song today, I’ll include it in the audio version.

How can I say thanks,

For the things you’ve done for me,

Things so undeserved,

Yet you gave to prove your love to me.

The voices of a million angels,

Could not express my gratitude,

All that I am and ever hope to be,

I owe it all to thee.

 

To God be the glory,

To God be the glory,

To God be the glory,

For the things He has done.

With His blood, He has saved me,

With His power, He has raised me.

To God be the glory,

For the things he has done,

With His power, He has raised me.

To God be the glory,

For the things he has done.

WEDNESDAY February 28^th

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

‘When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

Well, as we come to the final devotions on this chapter, and have considered the resurrection and the rapture of the saints, Paul reminds us that once all of what he has spoken about has taken place it will be the fulfilment of what had already been written in Isaiah 25:8 ‘He will swallow up death forever’ and from Hosea 13:14 ‘O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting?’

This chapter if I can put it this way has taken us from the Garden of Eden, where through Adam sin entered the world, thus bringing death to all men, to the Gospel of Jesus which brings us deliverance from sin and resurrection from the dead to the Grandeur of Heaven where we will be found, clothed in His glory.

Anyone who has suffered an anaphylactic reaction, (I have a few times) knows what it is like to suddenly feel your throat tightening, and your face swelling and your breathing getting more difficult—you need assistance as quickly as possible—usually a shot of Epinephrine via an epi-pen. Now, I do not know of anyone who while undergoing such a shock that has refused the shot! We know it is what was needed to save our life.

The wages of sin is death. And sin has gotten hold of every single person that has ever been born, and sin takes hold of an individual and will hold you in its grip, but God has provided a remedy that will take away the sting of sin that leads to death and it is through a person, not an epi-pen, it is through his shed blood and not via epinephrine, once the blood of Jesus has been applied, the sting of sin will be taken away and new, eternal life is given.

YET even though Christ has provided the antidote for sin and for death, many refuse to come and accept him, they prefer to continue in sin and to reject the offer of life and hope that the good news of the gospel brings.

And Paul says, ‘But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ I know that when I have been given a shot from the epi-pen the first thing I have done is to say thank you! And as I read this chapter and rejoice in what the gospel has come to mean to me and with all that it has provided for me, I cannot but say ‘thank you’ ‘Thank you Lord for saving my soul, thank you Lord for making me whole, thank you Lord for giving to me, thy great salvation so full and free. Can you wonder, can you wonder, can you wonder why it is I love him so, when I think of all he’s done, and for me the guilty one, can you wonder why it is I love him so!