"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Romans 8:26
As children of God we have everything we need for time and eternity! Romans 8:17 tells us that we are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ." Along life's way it is inevitable that we will have a certain amount of heartache and pain, but we have the absolute assurance of God's presence with us throughout our entire lives. We also have the assurance of a future entrance into our eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus.
The heartaches and pain we suffer on this earth are temporary, and they can not begin to compare to the glory we will have with the Lord Jesus some day. Paul said in Romans 8:18, "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Even creation is presently affected by sin and its consequences. So the children of God also "groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:23) We already have the Holy Spirit in our hearts as a deposit or promise of what is to come in our glorious eternal futures. We already have the forgiveness of our sins in Christ. We are already free from the penalty and power of sin, but sin and its effects are still present in our lives. So we groan in excited anticipation of the day when we will be completely free from the presence of sin and its consequences in the world and in our lives. We presently "hope" or look forward with absolute certainty to the blessed eternal inheritance that we have in Jesus Christ! Romans 8:25 tells us, "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently."
As the blessed assurance of our eternal inheritance and future in Christ sustains us, so the Holy Spirit helps us in our prayer life. Romans 8:26 promises the following, "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." Have you ever tried to pray and felt so overwhelmed with some heartache that you did not know how to pray? Have you ever felt that you could not find the words to express in prayer the depths of your feelings and needs in your heart?
God understand our weaknesses and has provided us a helper in our prayer lives. That helper is the Holy Spirit Himself! The Holy Spirit prays in and through us. He also prays for us especially during those times when we are too overwhelmed with heartache to find the right words to express our pain to the Lord in prayer. The Holy Spirit understands our sorrows and is our prayer helper, and He "intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express." The Holy Spirit Himself pleads and intercedes for us before the Heavenly Father! The Holy Spirit is our perfect intercessor before the Heavenly Father, because Romans 8:27b says "the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."
Praise the Lord for His infinite blessings! He is our salvation. He is our source of strength, promise, and hope. He provides for every need in our lives for time and eternity. The Lord provides us the Holy Spirit to help us live for the Lord and to help us in our weaknesses. Finally, the Lord even provides the Holy Spirit as our prayer helper and advocate! What a glorious God we serve! Praise His name!
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Romans 8:1-17
"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1
Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins! Many of us have heard that blessed truth since we were children. Because we have heard this truth so often, we may be in danger of becoming complacent in our faith. We must pause often, however, to think about the wonder of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Romans 8:1 says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Wow! Praise the Lord! We a believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are no longer separated from God by our sins. As redeemed children of God we can now live a new victorious life in Christ through the Holy Spirit! Through Jesus Christ Romans 8:2b tells us we are now governed by "the spirit of life," and we are set "free from the law of sin and death."
Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, Romans 8:4b tells us that we now have the power to "not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:5 goes on to tell us that in gratitude for what the Lord Jesus had done for us we must have our "minds set on what the Spirit desires" and not on what our sinful natures desires.
Living for the Lord leads to life, peace, security, and joy. We as children of God are controlled by the Holy Spirit. We have Christ's resurrection power in us to live for God. We will always struggle against sin until we go to be with the Lord, but we have the Holy Spirit's power within us to choose to reject sin and to live for God. Romans 8:13-14 tells us that we have a responsibility to "put to death the misdeeds of the body" and to live lives "led by the Spirit of God."
There are wonderful blessings in living a Holy Spirit controlled life. We are no longer a slave of anxiety, fear, or sin! We are now sons and daughters of God! The Holy Spirit in our hearts now "testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (Romans 8:16b)" When we are going through difficult times in our lives we can call on our heavenly Father. Romans 8:15b reminds us that we can cry out to Him saying, "Abba, Father." The cry "Abba Father" is not the cry of a Christian at his or her highest level of spiritual experience. It is the cry of a child of God who is hurting. It is a desperate plea of child of God who is crying, "Heavenly Daddy, help me!" It is at this point of need that the Holy Spirit helps us and confirms that we are children of God!
Finally, there is yet another blessing we receive in being a child of God and living Holy Spirit controlled lives. Romans 8:17 tells us that we are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!" All the riches and blessings of an eternity with the Lord are available to us through Christ Jesus! All of God's promises, strength, power, and grace are always with us. All of God's love, mercy, peace, and joy are at our disposal. All that belongs to God, the Father, also belong to Jesus Christ and to us as His "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!" We must be diligent in God's Word and in prayer so that we are not spiritual paupers and overlook any part of what we possess in Christ Jesus. There is victory and not condemnation for a child of God! Let us live our lives in the center of the will of God through the Holy Spirit's power!
Jesus Christ paid the penalty for our sins! Many of us have heard that blessed truth since we were children. Because we have heard this truth so often, we may be in danger of becoming complacent in our faith. We must pause often, however, to think about the wonder of Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Romans 8:1 says, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Wow! Praise the Lord! We a believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are no longer separated from God by our sins. As redeemed children of God we can now live a new victorious life in Christ through the Holy Spirit! Through Jesus Christ Romans 8:2b tells us we are now governed by "the spirit of life," and we are set "free from the law of sin and death."
Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins on the cross, Romans 8:4b tells us that we now have the power to "not live according to the sinful nature, but according to the Spirit." Romans 8:5 goes on to tell us that in gratitude for what the Lord Jesus had done for us we must have our "minds set on what the Spirit desires" and not on what our sinful natures desires.
Living for the Lord leads to life, peace, security, and joy. We as children of God are controlled by the Holy Spirit. We have Christ's resurrection power in us to live for God. We will always struggle against sin until we go to be with the Lord, but we have the Holy Spirit's power within us to choose to reject sin and to live for God. Romans 8:13-14 tells us that we have a responsibility to "put to death the misdeeds of the body" and to live lives "led by the Spirit of God."
There are wonderful blessings in living a Holy Spirit controlled life. We are no longer a slave of anxiety, fear, or sin! We are now sons and daughters of God! The Holy Spirit in our hearts now "testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. (Romans 8:16b)" When we are going through difficult times in our lives we can call on our heavenly Father. Romans 8:15b reminds us that we can cry out to Him saying, "Abba, Father." The cry "Abba Father" is not the cry of a Christian at his or her highest level of spiritual experience. It is the cry of a child of God who is hurting. It is a desperate plea of child of God who is crying, "Heavenly Daddy, help me!" It is at this point of need that the Holy Spirit helps us and confirms that we are children of God!
Finally, there is yet another blessing we receive in being a child of God and living Holy Spirit controlled lives. Romans 8:17 tells us that we are "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!" All the riches and blessings of an eternity with the Lord are available to us through Christ Jesus! All of God's promises, strength, power, and grace are always with us. All of God's love, mercy, peace, and joy are at our disposal. All that belongs to God, the Father, also belong to Jesus Christ and to us as His "heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ!" We must be diligent in God's Word and in prayer so that we are not spiritual paupers and overlook any part of what we possess in Christ Jesus. There is victory and not condemnation for a child of God! Let us live our lives in the center of the will of God through the Holy Spirit's power!
Thursday, November 3, 2016
Romans 6 and Romans 7:15-25
"In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." Romans 6:11
Jesus Christ has died on the cross to pay the penalty of punishment for our sins. We now have a righteous and pure standing before God. When God now looks at us, He does not see our sins, but He sees Christ's righteousness! We are free from the power or tyranny of sin. As a child of God, we have the power to say "no" to the devil and "yes" to God. We as believers, however, will not be completely free from the presence of sin in our lives until we go to be with the Lord.
As a child of God we must struggle against the sins still present in out lives. Romans 6:2b tells us, "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" We already have a righteous standing before God because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Now we need to struggle to show practical holiness and righteousness in our lives. Because we are united with Christ through His death and resurrection our old sinful selves were "crucified" with Jesus Christ so that as Romans 6:6 tells us "we should no longer be slaves to sin." As children of God we have already experienced new spiritual birth in Christ. Now we need to increasingly display that new life in Christ in our struggle against sin and in practical holiness in our lives.
Hence, Romans 6:11b tells us that we must count or consider ourselves "dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." We must choose against sin, and we must choose for the Lord. We must do all that we can to guard against our sinful natural appetites. We must do all we can to live in the light of the truth found in God's Word. We must saturate ourselves with His Holy Word. Romans 6:13 tells us that we must seek to do all we can to reject sin in our lives, and to offer ourselves to God as "instruments of righteousness." We must experience in practice what we already are in position-dead to devil and sin and alive in Jesus Christ.
We have a choice, either to be a slave to sin and the devil, or to be a slave to obedience and the Lord Jesus Christ. Slavery to sin leads to destruction and death. Slavery to Christ leads to life and righteousness. We must not let sin be our master, But Christ must increasingly become the Master and Lord of every area of our lives.
We will continue to struggle against sin our entire lives until we go to be with the Lord. Paul said in Romans 7:15b, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Paul said this because of the sin still living or present in him. In frustration Paul said in Romans 7:18b, "For I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." We, as believers today, also struggle against sin in our lives. What is the answer to all this? Paul tells us the answer to this question in Romans 7:24b-25a, when he says, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
We will and must continue to struggle against sin in our lives, but we must increasingly grow in practical holiness in our lives. The Lord Jesus must increasingly become Lord of every area of our lives. Then we will have ultimate victory in the Lord!
Jesus Christ has died on the cross to pay the penalty of punishment for our sins. We now have a righteous and pure standing before God. When God now looks at us, He does not see our sins, but He sees Christ's righteousness! We are free from the power or tyranny of sin. As a child of God, we have the power to say "no" to the devil and "yes" to God. We as believers, however, will not be completely free from the presence of sin in our lives until we go to be with the Lord.
As a child of God we must struggle against the sins still present in out lives. Romans 6:2b tells us, "We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" We already have a righteous standing before God because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Now we need to struggle to show practical holiness and righteousness in our lives. Because we are united with Christ through His death and resurrection our old sinful selves were "crucified" with Jesus Christ so that as Romans 6:6 tells us "we should no longer be slaves to sin." As children of God we have already experienced new spiritual birth in Christ. Now we need to increasingly display that new life in Christ in our struggle against sin and in practical holiness in our lives.
Hence, Romans 6:11b tells us that we must count or consider ourselves "dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus." We must choose against sin, and we must choose for the Lord. We must do all that we can to guard against our sinful natural appetites. We must do all we can to live in the light of the truth found in God's Word. We must saturate ourselves with His Holy Word. Romans 6:13 tells us that we must seek to do all we can to reject sin in our lives, and to offer ourselves to God as "instruments of righteousness." We must experience in practice what we already are in position-dead to devil and sin and alive in Jesus Christ.
We have a choice, either to be a slave to sin and the devil, or to be a slave to obedience and the Lord Jesus Christ. Slavery to sin leads to destruction and death. Slavery to Christ leads to life and righteousness. We must not let sin be our master, But Christ must increasingly become the Master and Lord of every area of our lives.
We will continue to struggle against sin our entire lives until we go to be with the Lord. Paul said in Romans 7:15b, "For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do." Paul said this because of the sin still living or present in him. In frustration Paul said in Romans 7:18b, "For I have a desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out." We, as believers today, also struggle against sin in our lives. What is the answer to all this? Paul tells us the answer to this question in Romans 7:24b-25a, when he says, "Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God-through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
We will and must continue to struggle against sin in our lives, but we must increasingly grow in practical holiness in our lives. The Lord Jesus must increasingly become Lord of every area of our lives. Then we will have ultimate victory in the Lord!
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