Plymothian

³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Security to Live Sacrificially

The magnitude of what God has done for is is still pushed aside by some people.  They call it infanticide in some cases.  God slays his own son in some crazy religious ritual. It sounds like the kind of thing some death cult would do rather than a loving and devoted father.  However, God is father of all of us.  He set the whole world in motion and we corrupted the system.  Jesus is not presented in Scripture as someone who was opposed to the plan.  That blood needed to shed in sacrifice is related to the magnitude of the crime.  Jesus gave up his life voluntarily, scripture is clear about that.  However, the Father was in accord.  So rather than a tyrant who slays his son, he is a loving God who accepts one son’s sacrifice on behalf of his billions of other estranged children.  This sacrifice on the part of the Father shows the magnitude of his love for his children and his creation.  He could not have given more because he gave the most precious thing that he had to gain reconciliation with the multitude.

Now realising the magnitude of the sacrifice, both emotionally and pragmatically we see that nothing will stand in the way of God’s love.  Those who are his are secure in his love.  The love of God empowers us and we defeat the sin that ravages our lives and we defeat the sin that separates our friends and relatives from God.  We can replay in a lesser form the acts of God in saving us.  As Jesus withheld nothing and offered his own life to be the bridge for the salvation of humanity.  So the normal human being empowered by God can give their own life as an offering so that others may be reconciled through the blood of Jesus.

However, like Jesus could not be separated from his Father and was reunited with him, so we (having been purchased by Jesus’ blood) can not be estranged from the Father.  He holds us securely and that gives us the boldness to live sacrificially for him.

Prayer

Thank you God for being for us.  You, Father made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could give ourselves to you in service.  When we are solid in our assurance of your love, we move with a boldness that defeats the enemies to your Kingdom.  In these dark times enemies grow within and without.  May your love and its acceptance and its demands win the day.

Questions

1. What questions does Paul ask?
2. What is his purpose in asking them?
3. How does this section fit into the greater scheme of Romans 8?
4. How confident are you of being loved?
5. How do you ‘live loved’?

Note:  One of the chapters in 20 Things We’d Tell Our Twentysomething Selves is entitled Live Loved http://www.amazon.com/Things-Wed-Tell-Twenty-Something-Selves/dp/B0170PCG9A/ref=tmm_aud_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=  

²⁸ We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.

What is the Good?

We are told that all things work for the good of those who love God?  Materialistic Christians think of this in consumer terms.  “Although I didn’t get the pool that God wants me to have, I know that what happens today will work toward my house, my jet, and my swimming pool.”  However, the context tells us that the good is the working out of our calling.  God has a purpose when he takes a hold of us and that purpose can not be foiled.  God has a plan.  His plan will not be foiled.  Everything that happens to his chosen people is part of the plan.  We are called.  We are justified,  We are glorified.  Nothing can work against the inevitability of God’s work.

So, God does not place under the Christmas tree the gift that we always wanted.  He uses the cataclysm, the disappointment, or the instability in life to create in us the person he meant us to be.  Our access to God is complete.  His access to us is unhindered.  We become good.

Prayer

Father, may I rest assured that all the things in my life work to bring about your good in me.  May I be the person you have laid hold of me to become.

Questions

1. What works for the good of those whom God calls?
2. How are predestination and goodness connected in this passage?
3. How is verse 28 used by Christians?
4. How would you explain the meaning of verse 28 in your own words?
5. Are you secure in the knowledge that God is working out his plan through you?

²⁶ In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with unspoken groanings. ²⁷ And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

Unspoken Groanings

There are times when even I am speechless.  There are times when I simply have nothing to say, but I still communicate.  You can read my face.  You can see my eyes light up, or you can see my frown.  When words fail me, you still know how I feel or what I am thinking.

The Holy Spirit is the means of communication when we get lost in prayer.  Does this mean that we speak in tongues?  It can’t mean that because Paul says in 1 Corinthians that some speak in tongues, but this describes an experience for all.  The communication here is that God-focused children are able to communicate because the Spirit communicates heart to heart. He knows us and he knows the Father, so we need not worry that we have said exactly the right words or prayed in the right way.

Prayer

…

Questions

1. Who helps in our weakness?
2. How does he help?
3. Why would some people think these verses relate to tongues?
4. When have you prayed through the groans of the Spirit?  How is it?
5. How does the Holy Spirit become central to prayer?

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. ¹⁹ For the creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope ²¹ that the creation itself will also be set free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s children. ²² For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now. ²³ And not only that, but we ourselves who have the Spirit as the first fruits—we also groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ Now in this hope we were saved, yet hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not see,we eagerly wait for it with patience.

Environmentalism

In America many Christians are skeptical about environmentalists.  What kind of person would save a snake or a dolphin over a person?  They believe that God did not create all species as equal.  Squashing a mosquito is regarded as a triumph rather than a murder.  Chopping down trees and drilling for oil are viewed as the rights of the rule of mankind over all creation.  Capitalism thrives on the natural resources harvested as cheaply as possible from the earth.  Capitalism also thrives on self-interest, exploitation and dishonesty.  Apparently, that needn’t be discussed.

The flaw in the thinking of the politically conservative ranks of Evangelicals in North America is that they are anthropocentric.  In this case, they think of the world as though mankind is the pinnacle.  The truth is that God is the pinnacle and mankind must reassess its thinking.  We are stewards of the resources and the riches of the world.  Looked at this way, we might think twice about the way we raise cattle, mine coal, or dispose of our waste.  Do we act as God’s representatives when we create huge land-fills?  The mass of unwanted rubbish in the dump could be lessened a little couldn’t it?  Is fracking the best way to keep extracting resources or is there a better way?

I am not suggesting simple answers.  I am raising complicated questions that Christians have answered simplistically.  Romans 8 teaches that Jesus’ salvation reaches Creation.  That does not just mean one species or one continent.  The salvation of Jesus changes everything from Everest to The Mariana Trench.  We are the agents of that change, as God gets a hold of our lives.  Christians should be leading the way in preserving God’s planet.  Instead we are reviled for having a ‘devil may care’ attitude and communicating a lack of love because we believe we will escape the end of the world in a glorious rapture.  That is so selfish.  It is one of the reasons, and there are many, that young people look at the older generation as hypocrites.  How can we say we love God, but let his world look like a sewer and let his people wallow in pollution?

I would definitely save a man or woman over another creature.  However, I also need to take better care of the planet so the the world sees the magnitude of God’s salvation.

Prayer

I am sorry for the waste which I promote by buying items packaged in unnecessary wrappers and layers of plastic.  I want to take better care of the world.  Let me be more aware today of what that might look like.

Questions

1. For what does creation await?
2. To what is creation subjected?
3. How are life in the Spirit and the environment (creation) connected in Romans 8?
4. How does your spiritual life make you more green?
5. In what ways could you promote stewardship of God’s planet?

¹² So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. ¹⁵ 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!” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, ¹⁷ 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.

Obligated

There are some things that are fitting, given the circumstances.  There are others that are not.  For example, if someone hands you their new born baby, it is fitting to treat them gently and to tell the parent kind things about their child.  If a person invites you to a banquet to celebrate the school that they have invested in, it would not be fitting to run down the achievements of the school with those around you.  We have been give the greatest honour.  We have been adopted into the family of the High King of Creation.  We have been given the opportunity to live the lives that we have been created for.

It baffles me, then, ho many Christians do not embrace the life which they have been given.  They meet Jesus in a business transaction where they receive eternal salvation and Jesus is meant to make all of life a little more manageable for them.  They do not really change life goals.  People who call themselves Christians live out the same values with the same desires as everyone else.  This is a kind of blindness at best and willful ingratitude at worst.  We were not created to live out our own goals, but his goals.  We need to pause and reflect until we know what those goals might be.  Then we walk in a new life day-to-day.  We adopt different postures on issues.  We embrace a significance greater than we could imagine because we are ambassadors for our Heavenly Father.

The irony is that in spite of our great status we may suffer and live a life of deprivation.  When we suffer for the sake of something as glorious as our calling, though, it is a wonderful thing to endure.  Wonderful achievements can feel horrible, but the value of our lives in Christ transcends feelings.

Prayer

Father, we really don’t know who we are or what we have inherited.  Give us a vision of the life we are meant to live.  Let everything be directed toward you.

Questions

1. How are Christians obligated to live?
2. Why are they obligated to live that way?
3. How do you think the Roman believers were living when they received this letter?
4. How can we see Christians today are unaware of the life they are called to live?
5. How can you be a light to others which shows them more of the life we were created to live?

⁹ 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. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 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.

Does the Spirit Dwell in You?

The question whether the Spirit dwells in us is a core question.  It is a difficult one.  I see some evidence of growth over time, but the holidays have been stressful and I don’t see the kind of growth I would like to.  So, does the Spirit dwell in me?

I hear radio programs exhorting me to share the gospel with everyone I meet.  I was ready to say that I don’t do that, but I did.  I challenge people to follow Jesus and I am challenged to do the same.  Whether that person is far from Jesus or walking closely with them my approach is much the same.  The Spirit of Christ compels me to talk about walking with Jesus.

The Spirit is life, but for one reason or another I feel dead a bit too often at the moment.  Should I then go with my feelings and consider myself abandoned by God or some kind of deserter?  The feelings I have do not convey reality.  Feelings are secondary to commitment.  I may feel abandoned by God and a victim of my own cowardice or foolishness, but I know by faith that God never leaves me.  Therefore I am in the Spirit regardless of how I feel.

What of doubts?  Can I doubt and still be in the Spirit?  Peter, Paul and the apostles were discouraged and downcast at times.  However, when they struggled or disobeyed God brought them back around in some way.  Pushing to the limit of our own knowledge causes us to grow.  The period of disequilibrium that follows the challenges that God send our way feels dark.  We might call it doubt.  However, it is by faith that we push away from shore and sail new waters, even if our emotions are storming around and within us.

In the end, for the Christian, there is always some evidence that the Spirit is at work.  Therefore there is hope that the Spirit will raise us up.

Prayer

Father give us insight and strength so that we can both see how we should walk in the Spirit and be able to do it.

Questions

1. What are the two options for the condition of man?
2. What is ‘flesh’ as Paul uses it?
3. Why is the Spirit life to the Christian?
4. Is there evidence that you are in the Spirit?
5. How does being in the Spirit bring a person hope?

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.² For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. ³ 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, ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ 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. ⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Life in the Spirit

There is a life of peace, but it is not worried about self.  When I am building my own kingdom, managing my own image, or nervous about how I am perceived I lose my peace.  A kind of death breaks out and starts to creep through my system and sap my energy.  One of the places I can see this principle at work most completely is when I receive criticism.  When I am in the flesh I suddenly feel like all hope is lost when I am criticized.  I think that something is wrong with me and I am not safe.  I want to defend myself and let the person who criticized me know that I am not the way that they think I am.

When I am in the flesh I can not embrace opportunities without the voice of my detractors from years gone by who remind me not to get ‘too big for my boots’, or to think I am something special.

The truth of the passage is that I am not condemned.  I can forget myself and focus on Jesus.  Jesus’ Spirit will walk with me and align me with God’s will.  It is not humility to be self-loathing or self-obsessed.  The blessed freedom comes when we are lost in the Spirit and the self is silent.  Those who worry about their image, or become paralyzed by their own limitations can not please God.  However, life is not about our image or limitations.  Those limitations are God’s opportunities.

Prayer

A chronic lack of confidence and a sense of fear of others is a sign that I am not walking in your Spirit.  Let my eyes be focused more by faith on the Spirit as we walk into the challenges of the day.  May we find peace and security in forgetting ourselves.  May we experience the freedom of no condemnation.

Questions

1. Why is there now no condemnation?
2. How is a life free from condemnation related to the Holy Spirit?
3. How is walking in the Spirit described?
4. What condemnation, self-loathing, fear and doubt hangs over you?
5. How can you look more to the Spirit today and live the full life that God has prescribed?

²¹ So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.²² For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, ²³ but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

Evil Lies Close at Hand

Evil.  The word conjures up various images from horrors in B movies to fascist dictators who see their own citizens as expendable.  However, the Bible takes evil from the history books and countries far away and brings evil right to our door.  We are evil without Christ and without hope.  When we find Jesus ‘evil lies close at hand.’  What kind of evil is this?

Evil is that which stands opposed to good.  ‘Good’, as far as the Bible is concerned, is anything that stands in the way of God’s goodness.  Before Christmas Juni Felix of Karl and June on Moody Radio warned us against the white noise of Christmas.  From a biblical standpoint the white noise is a sign of evil.  We can get busy and tired pursuing activities that don’t matter while the Son of God is left unattended. A sign of that in our household was that we never actually got around to reading the Christmas story together as a family like we usually do.  Something else always seemed more important.  Upon reflection, evil might have had its way.

Evil is seldom a grand gesture of immense cruelty.  It is often just a wrong focus or a thoughtless remark.  These things have a way of infecting the whole person and subtly removing us from our calling.  We end up washed up and we wonder how we got there.

So who can save us from this infectious evil?  Paul gives us the answer that it is Jesus who does so.  He brings a constant vigilance toward evil because of drawing us to himself.  We can constantly assess whether we are Christ centered and then Christ can bring us back to center.  In this way we are saved from the destructive nature of the banality of evil.

¹³ Did what is good cause me to die? Not at all! Sin had to be recognized for what it really is. So it used what is good to bring about my death. Because of the commandment, sin became totally sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is holy. But I am not. I have been sold to be a slave of sin. ¹⁵ I don’t understand what I do. I don’t do what I want to do. Instead, I do what I hate to do. ¹⁶ I do what I don’t want to do. So I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, I am no longer the one who does these things. It is sin living in me that does them. ¹⁸ I know there is nothing good in my desires controlled by sin. I want to do what is good, but I can’t. ¹⁹ I don’t do the good things I want to do. I keep on doing the evil things I don’t want to do. ²⁰ I do what I don’t want to do. But I am not really the one who is doing it. It is sin living in me that does it.

The Law Is Holy And I Am Not

I tend to root for those who break rules.  I went to see The Harlem Globetrotters last Sunday in Rockford.  I would recommend the show to any of you who are planning on seeing it at All State Arena in Chicago.  However, the Globetrotters are portrayed as cheeky rule-breakers.  The biggest threat to their winning is the other coach working with the referee to uphold the rules.  The result is that the Globetrotters look like non-conformist rebels and the ref and the opposition coach look like killjoys.

When there is a gunfight at a gas station, I tend to think the police are brave and noble.  However, when I see people pulled over after a stop sign, or I see a camera flash because the nose of a car has strayed inches over the white line, I tend to think the law enforcement is unnecessary.  However, the law is clear.  A rolling stop is not a complete stop.  The white line at the light is the absolute standard.  If you cross it, you deserve a ticket according to the law.  My attitude says more about me than it does the law.

This is where Paul goes with God’s law.  In recent years people have tried to overrule God’s laws.  They say they are contradictory, out-of-date, or just plain silly.  However, God has made rules to show his standard of perfection.  The breaking of each rule has the same penalty:  death.  This death is not the execution of the gallows or the electric chair of yore.  It is the severing of a relationship.  In particular it is alienation from God.

As a people group, North America can agree that ISIS or other terror groups claim godliness but their actions show they are alienated from any God who we would want to follow.  In America we have recreated God in the image of Santa Claus.  When he fails to deliver sparkly presents for a narcissistic, hedonistic New Year, we put Jehovah on the shelf in favour of our true God – self.  Then we are caught in a trap of having standards to live by that we never live up to.  We fail, and we have no-one bigger than us to lift us out of the cycle of death.

Prayer

I hate rule-keeping and being held to a standard.  I want other people to play by the rules and I acknowledge that we all have to have standards.  Yet, when I fall foul of the law on petty details I become angry and defensive.  I do not want to examine the darkness that causes me to balk.  I am not righteous.  I am not good in and of myself.  Transform me and make me holy as you are holy.

Questions

1. Is the law a villain in Paul’s thinking?
2. How can the law lead to such inner turmoil?
3. Is the experience of Paul a common experience to all people? Why?  Why not?
4. What standards do you tend to ignore (speed limits, stop signs, purity of language, stewardship of your body)?  What excuses do you make to God in order to leave those areas unaddressed?
5. How do you address the fact that you fall short of God’s standards for your life?

⁷ What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” ⁸ But sin,seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.¹⁰ The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. ¹¹ For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

A Good That Brings Bad

It is good to go home for Christmas.  I was in my home with friends and family around me this year.  We went to church on Christmas Eve and we played lots of games together.  However, I slipped into a role where I talked about God less and was less of the person I was created to be. The same kind of thing used to happen when I went home to England.

There was a role that I used to play as a child.  My father would change the rules in the games that we played, or he would dictate how the house was to be run.  I felt powerless and depressed.  When I would come home to England from Japan or Pakistan or wherever else I had been living, a pathetic role would awaken in me.  It was good to go home, but I would see that within me was a powerless child who couldn’t assert himself.

Paul says that the law is like that. It is a good thing, but in its presence I am shown that I have not arrived.  I am not yet the person I was created to be.  Having been born into a corrupted state, my corruption shows up in the face of the law.  If I am not to do something (do not covet), I find that I want to do it.  Sin wakes up and shows its ugly head.  In fact, through the good rules that God has made I can see that I am not good.

Prayer

I see in many circumstances that I have not yet become the man I was created to be.  Let me stay close to You and live out the life you have given me which overcomes the world and keeps the law.  May my rebellion become less because of the power of The Spirit.

Questions

1. Do you ever become a different person around different people? What triggers that?
2. What does Paul say shows us our true condition and even kills us?
3. In what way does sin seize opportunity?
4. Which commandment shows your sin most clearly?
5. What is the role of the law in your life?