Memorization Monday

After a long busy summer, I'm going to try to get back at the business of regularly sharing thoughts and biblical teaching that I have learned along the way. A couple of us are going to try to memorize Colossians over the next eleven months and every long trek has to begin with a few steps and so we begin with the first two verses:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Scripture memorization is an important discipline because it allows us to hold the Word of God in our minds and hearts and meditate on it frequently. It continues to work even in our subconscious once we have it stored away. God promises spiritual success if we meditate on his word.  Joshua 1:8 says,

"This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

 

Because of the Truth, I'm Responsible to

Because of these truths, I am responsible to:

1. Reckon (count, act as though) yourself to be dead to sin and alive to God. (Romans 6:11)

2. Do not allow sin to reign because its reign has been terminated. (Romans 6:12)

3. Do not present the members of your body to sin as weapons of unrighteousness, but to God as weapons of righteousness. (Romans 6:13)

4. Serve God in the newness of the Spirit and not in the old way of the letter of the law. (Romans 7:6)
...because the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. (2 Corinthians 3:6)

5. Walk according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

6. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit, things above. (Romans 8:5, Colossians 3:2)

7. Put to death your members (the deeds of the body) on the earth. (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5, 8)

8. Resist the devil and he will flee. (James 4:7 1 Peter 5:9)

9. Take the way of escape. (1 Cor 10:13)

10. Put off the old man (see #5 in the first section). (Ephesians 4:22)

11. Put on the new man. (Colossians 3:10; Eph 4:24)
See Ephesians 4:25- 5:21 and Colossians 3:5-24 for what to put off and put on.
Galatians 5:19-26 for the deeds of the flesh vs. the fruit of the Spirit

Flesh adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelry, passion, covetousness, malice,blasphemy, filthy language, lying, stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness, clamor, foolish talking, coarse jesting, pride, boaster, strife, whisperers, backbiting, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, disobedience to parents, violence

Spirit love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, tender mercies, humility, meekness, forbearance, forgiveness, thankfulness, truthfulness, work, edifying speech, grace, righteousness, redeeming time, spirit-filled, speaking/singing/teaching one another with various songs, submitting appropriately, obey and honor parents, prefer and honor others, selflessness, compassion

12. Lay aside every weight and the sin that easily trips me up. (Hebrews 12:1)

13. Be renewed in your minds. (Ephesians 4:23; Romans 2:2)
...by spending time memorizing and meditating on the Scriptures. (Psalm 1:1-3; Joshua 1:8)

14. Exercise and practice your powers of discernment. (Hebrews 5:14)
Train yourself in godliness. (1 Timothy 4:7)
Because breaking bad sinful habits requires the practice of new habits.

Truth to Know and Believe

 In summary from our study of victory in Christ here are --

Truths to Know and Believe:

1. While I was still a sinner Christ died in my place. (Romans 5:8)

2. Just as Adam's sin made me a sinner, Jesus' life and sacrifice made me righteous. (Romans 5:16, 19)

3. I died to sin when I died with Christ. (Romans 6:1-3)

4. I am crucified with Christ. (Galatians 2:20)

5. My old man was crucified with Him. (Romans 6:6)

6. The body of sin has been rendered inoperative. (Romans 6:6)

7. I've been freed from sin and its reign. (Romans 6:7)

8. Sin will not have dominion over me. (Romans 6:14)

9. I am not under law, but under grace. (Romans 6:15)

10. I've been forgiven of all trespasses and the handwriting of ordinances that was against me has been taken out of the way and nailed to the cross. (Colossians 2:14)

11. I am a slave of whoever I obey – either sin leading to death, or obedience leading to righteousness, to holiness to eternal life. (Romans 6:16-23)

12. I have become dead to the law through the body of Christ. (Romans 7:4)

13. I am free to bear fruit to God and to serve in the newness of the Spirit. (Romans 7:4,6)

14. The law is holy, just and good. (Romans 7: 12)

15. The law is spiritual but I am fleshly. (Romans 7:14)

16. When I would do good, evil is present in me, that is in my flesh. (Romans 7:18, 21)

17. I am now not under any condemnation because I am in Christ. (Romans 8:1)

18. I am free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)

19. The sin in me was condemned in the atonement of Christ. (Romans 8:3)

20. The righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in me as I walk according to the
Spirit. (Romans 8:4)

21. If I live according to the flesh, I'm embracing death, I'm an enemy of God, and I cannot please God. (Romans 8:5-8)

22. I have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (Galatians 5:24)

23. As a Christian, my body is dead because of sin, but my spirit is alive because of righteousness, and the Holy Spirit will also give life to my mortal body some day. (Romans 8:10, 11)

24. I am not a debtor to the flesh to follow it. I don't owe it anything! (Romans 8:12)

25. If I live according to the flesh, I will die, but if I put to death the deeds of the body by the power of the Spirit, I will live. (Romans 8:13)

26. The Spirit will be victorious over the flesh. (Galatians 5:17)

27. The one in me is greater than the one in the world. (1 John 4:4)

28. God will not allow me to be tempted or tested above what I am able. (1 Cor 10:13)

29. God will finish what he started and conform us to the image of Christ. This is a certainty. (Phil 1:6; Romans 8:29)

30. Under the New Covenant I've been given a new heart, new spirit, God's Spirit and motivation to do right. (Ezekiel 36:26)

31. God will discipline me as a loving Father so that I will share in His holiness. Without that holiness I won't see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:10, 14)

32. Having been sanctified and perfected, my conscience has been cleansed once for all. (Hebrews 9:9; 9:14; 10:2; 10:22; read all of chapter 10 carefully)

Final Victory

Last time we saw that the Bible describes sin as dwelling in our bodies. Our living spirit along with he power of the Holy Spirit are to put to death the deeds of the body and to set our minds on spiritual things. This is the method for gaining victory.

In this last post on this subject I want us to look at the promise of ultimate victory. In Romans 8:9-11, Paul writes these words, “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

What he is saying here is that even though the body is dead and dying, the Spirit of God who lives in us will ultimately give life to our mortal body as well. The place where sin has found a refuge will be replaced by a new body where righteousness rather than sin will dwell. In the mean time, we groan, eagerly waiting for our adoption, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:23).

It's interesting to see that the Bible calls our current physical body a “soulish” body (1 Corinthians 15:44). The word translated “natural” in most translations is the word pseuche which as we have seen before is the word for soul. So Adam was made a living soul and he possessed a soulish body. But there is also going to be a spiritual body. Christ was a life-giving Spirit (1 Corinthians 15:45). He tells us that both a soulish body and a spiritual body exist but the soulish comes first and then the spiritual. When our soulish body has been replaced by a spiritual body, then our redemption will be complete. Sin wil no longer have a foothold.

1 Corinthians 15:54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Put to Death the Deeds of the Body

The answer to defeating sin and living a life that is pleasing to God is to use the power of the Holy Spirit within us as believers to put to death the deeds of the body. This is what Paul has told us in Romans 8:13. The motivation is internal and the life is internal. He describes this method as the newness of the Spirit as opposed to the oldness of the letter (Romans 7:6). Instead of an external law that has to be obeyed by shear natural human effort, we now have the resources within and the law written within as the resource we need to be victorious.

But why does he speak of putting to death the deeds of the body? How is the body the problem? As I mentioned in a previous post, we are composed of body, soul and spirit. A Christian has a renewed spirit. The soul has been damaged by sin and so the mind, will and emotions are not what they were originally created to be. The body is weak and subject to sickness and death.

I don't want to get too complicated, but let's see if this is understandable. We know that there is more to us than our physical nature. In other words, we have a brain to think and experience emotions. Emotions also involve our hormonal system. These are all intertwined with each other. But the Bible teaches that when we die, we will still have thinking capability and we will still be able to love God and praise him, so it must be the case that part of these functions now as we are in the body are immaterial and part of these functions are due to physical processes. I believe that in the physical side of our being we have developed sinful habits and sinful methods for dealing with life. These become ingrained in our physical nature. This is where sin continues to reside.

In Romans 7 Paul writes these things: “For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death (verse 5).

If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good (verses 16-21).

So you see, he is attributing the problem to sin that is in his members or in his body. The Bible doesn't portray the body itself as sinful or evil the way a gnostic would, but it describes the body and I believe the physical parts of the soul as the seat where sin has taken up residence in a Christian. And this is where it needs to be attacked. Therefore we are told to put to death the deeds of the body. We are told not to yield the members of our body as servants to sin and unrighteousness. We have the inner capability to do this because of our living spirit and the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

Mind of the Spirit vs. Mind of the Flesh

In Romans 8:5 Paul told us that walking according to the Spirit means setting ones mind on the things of the Spirit, whereas setting ones mind on the things of the flesh means setting ones mind on the things of the flesh. Last time I gave you a list of examples for each category. Verse 4 has told us that the righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in us if we walk according to the Spirit and set our minds on the things of the Spirit.

Now in verse 6, Paul makes a stunning statement. He says that to be fleshly minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The fleshly mind is at enmity with God and cannot please God. In verse 13 he says, “If you live according to the flesh you will die.” That means if my normal mode of life is to have a mind set on the kind of things in the flesh list I shared with you last time, I will die. He had written back in chapter 6 that if I yield the parts of my body to sin and disobedience, the result of that will be further disobedience will ultimately result in eternal death (Romans 6:16-23). He wrote the Galatian Christians and told them that they would reap what they sow and then he gave them two examples. He said that they could either sow to the flesh or they could sow to the spirit. If they sowed to the flesh, they would reap corruption (Galatians 6:7-8).

So this is a pretty strong warning to me. Yielding myself to the things of the flesh, to the kind of things I listed for you earlier, puts me on the road that leads ultimately to my eternal ruin. I for one do not want to be on that road! So it behooves me to be setting my mind on the things of the Spirit which results in life.

He says in Romans 8:13 that if we through the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body, we will live. That is the answer right there. Christians have within them the Spirit of God as well as their own revived spirit and so we are to use the power of the Spirit within us to put to death the deeds of the body and in so doing, we will live.

Hymn of the Week - Crown Him With Many Crowns

1. Crown him with many crowns, 
 the Lamb upon his throne, 
 Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns 
 all music but its own. 
 Awake, my soul, and sing 
 of him who died for thee, 
 and hail him as thy matchless King 
 through all eternity. 

2. Crown him the Lord of life, 
 who triumphed o'er the grave, 
 and rose victorious in the strife 
 for those he came to save. 
 His glories now we sing, 
 who died, and rose on high, 
 who died, eternal life to bring, 
 and lives that death may die. 

3. Crown him the Lord of peace, 
 whose power a scepter sways 
 from pole to pole, that wars may cease, 
 and all be prayer and praise. 
 His reign shall know no end, 
 and round his pierced feet 
 fair flowers of paradise extend 
 their fragrance ever sweet. 

4. Crown him the Lord of love; 
 behold his hands and side, 
 those wounds, yet visible above, 
 in beauty glorified. 
 All hail, Redeemer, hail! 
 For thou hast died for me; 
 thy praise and glory shall not fail 
 throughout eternity. 

Resources Available to Combat Sin

A Christian has the internal resources to live a life pleasing to God. He has a new heart, a new spirit, God's spirit and internal motivation to be obedient. The question becomes, will we use the resources we have to live a life that is pleasing to God and that honors and glorifies him?

In Romans 8, we have several keys to help us understand how we are to use what we have been given to live victorious and obedient lives.

First we have the umbrella of protection that I've already discussed and that is that a Christian is under absolutely no condemnation or judgment from God. His sins have been completely forgiven and will never be brought up again. He does not fear the judgment because God has declared him completely righteous. This is not because he has been righteous, but because the very righteousness of God has been imputed to him and placed on his record.

Second, in verses 2 and 3 we are reminded that we have died to the law. The law no longer has jurisdiction because as we saw earlier, a Christian is seen by God to have died with Christ and to be raised with him and therefore there is no further penalty for sin. Sin requires death. I've died. Issue closed.

Romans 8:4 says, “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Here we begin to see how this works. The righteous requirement of the law will not be fulfilled because we try to be obedient to some external list of rules. The righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in us as we walk according to the spirit. As I said yesterday, a Christian has had his own spirit made alive plus he has God's spirit in him as well as a God-given motivation to do the right thing and so these factors work together to provide internal obedience to the law of God. But it takes place as we walk according to the Spirit. That is we walk in unison or in step with the Spirit of God who indwells us.

Paul goes on to explain in verse 5 that a person who is according to the Spirit is one who puts his mind on the things of the spirit. The one who is according to the flesh is someone whose mind is on the things of the flesh. What are these things? A list of the things of the Spirit might include these kinds of things: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, tender mercies, humility, meekness, forbearance, forgiveness, thankfulness, truthfulness, selflessness, and compassion. Things of the flesh would include things such as these: hatred, contentions, jealousies, wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresy, envy, murder, drunkenness, covetousness, malice, blasphemy, sexual sin, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, filthy language, lying, stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness, pride, boasting, strife, and gossip.

So what Paul is saying here is that there are two mind-sets a person can have. He can either have his mind set on the things of the Spirit or the things of the flesh. The question we need to ask ourselves is what is our mind-set? Generally speaking where is our mind. What kinds of things do we think about and what kind of responses come out of us when faced with a sudden obstacle?

Do these two choices of spiritual or fleshly-mindedness represent possible choices for a Christian to pursue or are these distinctions between Christians and non-Christians? That is the question we want to look at next time.

Victory Over Sin

The Bible says that we are essentially made of body, soul and spirit. When God made man, he made him from the dust of the ground. When he breathed into him the breath of life, man became a living soul (Genesis 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:57). The word for soul here is the word psuche from which we get our word psychology. The word for spirit is pneuma from which we get our words pneumatic and pneumonia. So when God breathed into Adam, he was breathing his spirit into him. Adam became a living soul when the breath of God entered him.

The problem however was that Adam disobeyed God and his spirit died. God had told him that the day he ate of the tree that God had forbidden, he would die. And he did die spiritually. Everyone born since then has been born with a dead spirit (Ephesians 2:1). In addition, our bodies are dying and our soul consisting of mind, will and emotions has been severely damaged by the effects and habits of sin.

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that when a person comes to Christ in saving faith, God gives him the righteousness of Christ which grants that person a right standing before God. God sees him as though he had never sinned as far as the court of heaven is concerned. He need not fear on judgment day.

However, we still have the problem of how to live out a life that is pleasing and obedient to God in our normal day to day living. In the Old Testament God promised a New Covenant that he was making with his people. In that covenant several things were granted. God promised to remove the old hard stoney heart we are born with, replace it with a tender, pliable heart. He promised to give him a new spirit. He promised his own spirit would come into the person, and he promised that he himself would provide the internal motivation to do the right thing (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Jeremiah 31:33). This new covenant was announced by Jesus at the last supper and initiated when he died and rose again.

What does that mean for a believer in Jesus Christ? It means that he now has the inner resources to be obedient to God. He has a new heart, a new spirit, God's spirit and internal motivation to be obedient. The resources are there. The question becomes, will we use the resources we have to live a life that is pleasing to God and that honors and glorifies him?

More tomorrow.

We Need Righteousness - God Supplies It

What is the answer to the dilemma posed yesterday? Sin at its core is the desire to reign in place of God. How is this problem solved, especially for the Christian who desires to do right but finds, like the Apostle Paul, that sin is right there inside?

We basically have two issues that need to be solved. Since God's righteous standard is perfection, we've already failed. There's no use thinking about how to do better in the future since we've already blown it. The goal of perfection has already been forfeited. The second issue is that if we can find a solution to the first problem, how can we live an obedient life that is pleasing to God? How do I do this? How?

Paul begins Romans 8 with these words, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is God's answer to the first problem. We need a righteousness that is perfect and it needs to remove our guilt in Adam from us and it needs to cover us from the beginning of our lives to the end. What God has done is to provide us with his righteousness. His righteousness is perfect. Our problem is that we seek to establish our own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3). God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).

If we flee to Christ and trust the provision he has made for our spiritual need, he gives us freely his own righteousness and takes upon himself our sin. That is what we mean when we say that Christ died for our sins. If we accept it, our sins are placed on him and because of that he had to die as a punishment for those sins, even though he had not committed them himself.

When that is true, we are in Christ and are under no condemnation whatsoever for any of the sins we have committed. And further, since we are in Christ, he has become our representative rather than Adam. Before we come to Christ, God sees Adam as having spoken for all of his offspring when he decided against God back in the garden of Eden. But as a believer, Adam ceases to be our representative and Christ becomes the representative for us. And how did he respond to God's commands? He responded perfectly obediently and thus God sees us as having responded obediently even from birth.

Next time we will look at the resources God has given us for living a victorious Christian life here and now.

Why Do We Sin?

If you've been following this blog at all you know that I have written a couple of series dealing with Romans 6-8 which basically gives us insights into sin and God's way of gaining victory over it. See part 1 here.) But that study has started me thinking about what causes us to sin or to want to sin.

The easy answer is that we are sinners or we have a sin nature. Romans 6:23 tells us that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Paul writes in Romans 7:21 “I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.” But what I'm trying to think through is what it is in our psychological nature that causes us to sin. What do we think we need or what are we trying to get out of it? Why do I argue with someone in an effort to win the point? Why do I complain so loudly when I feel that I have been taken advantage of? Why do I want a nicer car than my neighbor has?

James asks a similar, but not quite the same, question. In James 4 he writes, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.” In another place he writes, “Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”

So what I see from these passages is that we are born with lusts which are very strong desires. The Bible characterizes these as the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). The lusts of the flesh are lusts that are normal body desires, such as to eat, or for sex, which are then magnified to strong level. Lust of the eyes involve things we see which causes us to have a desire for those things when we don't necessarily need them. They look good. They are attractive. Television commercials often leverage this strong desire to get us to buy their product. Pride of life is the desire to be someone. To use what we have either in possessions or skills to set ourselves up higher than others.

Going back then to the James passages, we wee that the wars and fights come about because of these strong desires. Why would someone lie? In order to make himself appear better, more significant or more skillful than he actually is. Why do we covet something someone else has? Because of the lust of the eyes and often also because of the pride of life. Why should that person have a nicer car than I have? We have a strong desire to be higher, better and more envied than others. Why do we complain about the weather? What am I saying when I do this?

But what is the root of all of this? I think Romans 1 gives us the answer. Paul's indictment there is that we do not give God the glory he deserves and are not thankful (verse 21), and we worship and serve the creature, namely ourselves, more than God (verse 25). You see, I think the core problem is that we want to be God. Giving glory to the God of heaven means I need to place myself under him and recognize his rightful rule over me. Being thankful means I am acknowledging that what I have comes from him and that I am dependent on him. We don't normally want to be dependent on anyone. Paul told the people of Athens that God is the one who gave them life and breath and all things and that he is the one who made them and determined when and where they would live on the earth (Acts 17:25-26). If those things are true, then we are dependent on God for everything and that means we are not the masters of our fate or the captain of our soul as William Henley so famously wrote. And the problem is.....WE DON'T LIKE THAT! We hold our fist in the air and demand sovereignty for ourselves. That is the problem.

As a Christian I'm confronted with the fact that this rebellion is in me. When I would do good, evil is present with me (Romans 7:21). When I see the righteous demands of God's law, I realize that there is no way in the world I am going to be able to meet the standard and so I say with Paul, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24).

We'll look at God's answer tomorrow.

Hymn of the Week - Things We Leave Behind by Michael Card

There sits Simon, so foolishly wise
Proudly he's tending his nets
Then Jesus calls and the boats drift away
And all that he owns he forgets

But more than the nets, he abandoned that day
He found that his pride was soon drifting away
And it's hard to imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind

Matthew was mindful of taking the tax
And pressing the people to pay
Hearing the call, he responded in faith
And followed the light and the way

And leaving the people so puzzled he found
The greed in his heart was no longer around and
And it's hard to imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind

Every heart needs to be set free
From possessions that hold it so tight
'Cause freedom's not found in the things that we own
It's the power to do what is right

With Jesus, our only possession
And giving becomes our delight
And we can't imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind

We show a love for the world in our lives
By worshiping goods we possess
Jesus has laid all our treasures aside
And love God above all the rest

'Cause when we say no, to the things of the world
We open our hearts to the love of the Lord and
It's hard to imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind

And when we say no, to the things of the world
We open our hearts to the love of the Lord and
It's hard to imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind
Oh, and it's hard to imagine the freedom we find
From the things we leave behind
Read more at http://www.songlyrics.com/michael-card/things-we-leave-behind-lyrics/#7QR91t22kmy8iIMs.99

Our Sympathetic High Priest

For we do not have a high priest was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Hebrews 4:15

We have a High Priest who is so great that there is none in the world like him. He is so far beyond us, and infinitely above us, that we are but dust and ashes. Yet, he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. It now appears for us in heaven — in our nature. Our Lord took our frail nature upon him and was exposed to want, poverty, hunger, cold, weariness, pain, death, grief, anguish, trouble, and fear. He knows all of our infirmities. None of them are so small that he does not take notice. We may feel our afflictions are more than we can number, but he counts them exactly. He does not only know them notionally, but experimentally. He has himself been exercised with them. He knows their weight and how they smart, for he has felt them. He knows by experience what it is to be in need, to have nothing upon which to ride, and nowhere to lay his head. He knows what it is to be in pain, and to be despised, abused, reproached and hated. He knows the sorrows of life and the pangs of death by his own experience. He knows what it is to be tempted to sin and troubled with horrid suggestions from Satan. He knows what it is to be deserted by his friends and to be forsaken of God. He became like us and all these things. And now, he is affected with our infirmities, and is touched with the feeling of them. He not only has suffered what others feel, but suffers with them in what they feel. Though Christ is no longer under these infirmities as he once was, he is touched in his soul by our sufferings. He desires to help and comfort us, and do what is best for us in such a condition, out of his wonderful love. He feels as we feel at the sufferings of a very dear friend. His compassion is as a parent for a beloved child.

From Voices From the Past, Puritan Devotional Readings Edited by Richard Rushing, Page 361

Hymn of the Week - Stand Up My Soul

Stand up, my soul, shake off thy fears,
And gird the Gospel armor on,
March to the gates of endless joy,
Where thy great Captain-Savior’s gone.

Hell and thy sins resist thy course,
But hell and sin are vanquished foes;
Thy Jesus nailed them to the cross,
And sung the triumph when He rose.

What though the prince of darkness rage,
And waste the fury of his spite,
Eternal chains confine him down
To fiery deeps and endless night.

What though thine inward lusts rebel,
’Tis but a struggling gasp for life;
The weapons of victorious grace
Shall slay thy sins, and end the strife.

Then let my soul march boldly on,
Press forward to the heav’nly gate;
There peace and joy eternal reign,
And glitt’ring robes for conquerors wait.

There shall I wear a starry crown,
And triumph in almighty grace,
While all the armies of the skies
Join in my glorious Leader’s praise.

- Isaac Watts

Why the Forbidden Tree? ~One Explanation.

Thoughts by Thomas Boston in "Voices from the Past", Page 349

Genesis 2:9 And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.


Adam had perfect tranquility and calm in his own breast in paradise.  His conscience had nothing to do, and the happy pair lived in perfect unity.  They were liable to no disease or pain, and had a life of pure delight and unmixed pleasure.  Wisdom and knowledge was pleasant to their souls.  They knew the knowledge of God, enjoyed communion with him, and saw the delights of his glory.  The forbidden fruit in this paradise of Eden was a gracious provision to protect Adam from falling.  God made man lord of the world, but Adam needed to know by a particular visible sign that God had sovereign dominion over all.  It was for man’s safety, and an act of infinite wisdom and grace, to keep him from one single tree as a visible testimony that he must yield all to his Creator, so that while he saw himself as lord of creation, he might not forget that he was still God’s subject.  This tree was a memorial from heaven to warn him of his danger and cause him to be aware of his changeable state.  Man was created with a free will to do good, of which the tree of life was an evidence, but also free to do evil, and the forbidden tree was to remind him of this grave danger.  It was a continual reminder to Adam against evil.  It was a beacon set up before him to bid him beware of dashing himself to pieces on the rocks of sin.  God created man to stand upright, that he might look up to God and find happiness above, and not on the earth.  This fair tree taught him this lesson.  His happiness was not to be found in the enjoyment of creation, for there was a lack even in paradise.  The forbidden tree was, in effect, the representative of all creation.  It pointed man away from himself, and to God for happiness.  It was a sign reading ‘Emptiness’ hung over the door of creation.


Read more at http://creationrevolution.com/daily-devotional-the-lord-god-made-to-spring-up/#29wz6cQrAHmo4vJd.99

Memorization Monday - Psalm 139:1-3

Psalm 139:1-3 For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways.

What an amazing God we serve! There's no hiding from him. It's best to just admit and confess our sinfulness and live in the full light of his truth.

Hymn of the Week - Complete in Thee by Aaron R. Wells and James M. Gray

Pastor said that he would be speaking on justification this evening and this old song came to my mind. I could not find it in any of my more current hymnbooks. I had to go back to the Worship and Service Hymnbook we used at Wheaton College when I was there.

1. Complete in Thee! no work of mine
May take, dear Lord, the place of Thine;
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
And I am now complete in Thee.

Chorus
Yea, justified! O blessed thought!
And sanctified! Salvation wrought!
Thy blood hath pardon bought for me,
  And glorified, I too, shall be!

2. Complete in Thee—no more shall sin,
Thy grace hath conquered, reign within;
Thy voice shall bid the tempter flee,
And I shall stand complete in Thee.

3.Complete in Thee—each want supplied,

And no good thing to me denied;
Since Thou my portion, Lord, wilt be,
I ask no more, complete in Thee.

4. Dear Savior! when before Thy bar
All tribes and tongues assembled are,
Among Thy chosen will I be,
At Thy right hand—complete in Thee.

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/328#ixzz306v3j800

Romans 7 Continued

Romans 7 continued. (See Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

After having told us that sin shall not have dominion over us because we are not under law but under grace, and after having said that we are not under the law's jurisdiction because of our death with Christ on the cross, he now goes on to examine whether there is something wrong with the law. In Romans 7:7 he asks the question, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin?” The answer is “Absolutely Not!” Paul says he would not have known about covetousness if the law had not told him not to covet.

The problem is that sin takes the opportunity that comes about because of the law. Paul personifies sin in this passage and shows that when we hear a commandment, sin uses that as an opportunity to rise up and oppose the law. In opposing the law it is opposing the nature and character of God. The moral law is a revelation of the character of God. So sin, taking the opportunity provided by the law rises up and as Paul wrote, “produced in me all manner of evil desire” (Romans 7:8).

He goes on to explain that apart from the law, sin is dead. He says that he was doing just fine before the law came, but when it arrived, sin came to life and he died. Paul was a Jew and a Pharisee. He had had the law since he was a small child. In Philippians 3:5-6 Paul writes concerning himself, “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

So what does he mean in Romans 7 when he says that when the law came, sin revived and he died? I think it means that at some point the spiritual nature of the real law sank in. He realized that the law not only prohibited murder, it meant hatred, anger and bitterness were the seeds from which murder comes and therefore are violations of the character of God every bit as much as actual murder is. He realized that not only was the deed of sexual immorality wrong, but thinking about it and lusting after a woman was also wrong. When that realization hits us, wrongful thoughts and emotions seem to spring up in a constant stream and realize we are doomed. For as Paul says in Galatians 3:10, “For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.'”

The commandment was meant to bring life. Leviticus 18:5 tells us, “You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them: I am the Lord.” But sin that has taken up residence in us uses the opportunity of the law and kills us. Paul concludes this section by telling us that the law is holy, just and good. There is nothing wrong with the law in that sense, but there is definitely something wrong with us. God has removed us from the jurisdiction of the law, not because of the law, but because of its affect on sin. We'll find that law was never meant to be the solution of our problem, but was meant to show us our problem so that we could be rescued by faith in Christ. 

Memorization Monday - Romans 5:9-10

Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Romans 5:9-10


Since Christ died for us while we were still sinners, we have even more benefits in store. Primarily in this passage we have the promise that we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Why is it crucial that we be saved from wrath? Why is there wrath from God? The sinfulness of man makes God angry. He created us for his glory and for his pleasure and yet we have rebelled. He provided for all of our needs to be met by his gracious and loving hands and yet in spite of all of that we rejected this loving care and turned our back on him and his provision. That is why God is angry.

But what did this God do? He entered the world himself in the person of Jesus Christ and died on the cross to take the brunt of his own anger upon himself so that he might set rebellious sinners free. Which rebellious sinners does he set free?  Those who come to him and believe him when he says he freely pardons from all sins.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Love Crucified Arose - Michael Card

Long ago, He blessed the earth
Born older than the years
And in the stall the cross He saw
Through the first of many tears

A life of homeless wandering
Cast out in sorrow's way
The Shepherd seeking for the lost
His life, the price He paid

Love crucified arose
The risen One in splendor
Jehovah's sole defender
Has won the victory

Love crucified arose
And the grave became a place of hope
For the heart that sin and sorrow broke
Is beating once again

Throughout Your life You've felt the weight
Of what You'd come to give
To drink for us that crimson cup
So we might really live

At last the time to love and die
The dark appointed day
That one forsaken moment when
Your Father turned His face away

Love crucified arose
The One who lived and died for me
Was Satan's nail pierced casualty
Now He's breathing once again

Love crucified arose
And the grave became a place of hope
For the heart that sin and sorrow broke
Is beating once again

Love crucified arose
The risen One in splendor
Jehovah's sole defender
Has won the victory

Love crucified arose
And the grave became a place of hope
For the heart that sin and sorrow broke
Is beating once again

Love crucified arose
The One who lived and died for me
Was Satan's nail pierced casualty
Now He's breathing once again

Ultimate Reality

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

He has been appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Because we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising.

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. For it is appointed for men to die once, and after that the judment. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.

And they sang a new song, saying: “You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures, and the elders; and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain To receive power and riches and wisdom, And strength and honor and glory and blessing!” And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”

Taken from these Scriptures:

John 1:1-5, 14; Colossians 1:15-17 ; Hebrews 1:1-4; Isaiah 64:6; Acts17:24-31; Hebrews 9:27; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Revelation 5:9-14

Continuing Thoughts on Romans 7

This is a continuation of my thoughts on Romans 6-8 with special attention to Romans 7. It would be best if you start with Part 1 and Part 2 so that you will have the context.

Paul asked the question in 6:15, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?” He asked that question because he had just stated that sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under law but under grace (v. 14). We have died to sin and so we should not offer the members of our body as instruments to sin, but we should offer ourselves to God as those alive from the dead. And then he goes right into “For sin shall not have dominion over you...”

One would naturally want to know why sin will not have dominion just because we are not under law but under grace. What does not being under law have to do with it? Before he deals with that question, he wants to make sure that even though we are not under law but under grace, continuing to yield ourselves to sin makes us in effect a slave to sin, even though legally sin has no dominion. And he further tells us that yielding to sin continuously leads to further sin and ultimately death, whereas yielding to obedience leads ultimately to holiness and eternal life. With those warnings given, he turns once again to the law in chapter 7 where he wants to explain what freedom from the law means and how the law and sin interact.

So he begins chapter 7 by using marriage as an illustration to show that the law has jurisdiction over a person until death takes place. It can be the death of a person himself, or in the case he examines here the death of a spouse. When ones spouse dies, the law prohibiting marriage to another person no longer applies. So death breaks the legal hold of the law on a person.

In a similar way, when Jesus died on the cross and we died with him, we are no longer bound to the law but are now free to be “married” to Christ so that we can bear fruit for God (7:4). In 6:21 he had asked, When you were slaves of sin, “what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?” The fruit of that kind of living is death. The fruit of an obedient life is holiness and eternal life. But the problem that he is going to be addressing here is how that works out. By being separated from the law, we are married to Christ. The natural fruit of that union will be born out in our lives because he lives in us. In another place Jesus compares himself to a vine and we are the branches. The natural result of being connected in that way is fruit (John 15). The same thing is true here.

Beginning in 7:5 then I believe Paul is summarizing what is to come in the next sections of his letter. Verse 5 tells us that when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions were aroused by the law and as a result, the fruit we brought forth was fruit to death. I believe this is what he then explains in much of the rest of the chapter. When was it that we were “in the flesh”? It was before the regenerating power of God brought about the new birth in our hearts.

In contrast, verse 6 explains that now we have been delivered from the law because we have died to it through the death of Christ, and now we serve in the new way based on the Spirit's work and not the old way of mechanical obedience to external rules and regulations. This, I believe is what he gets into in chapter 8, the life governed by the Spirit.

The problem with the law as we shall see is not really a problem with law at all, but a problem with us. We are not capable of keeping the law and instead of helping us, the law gives strength to sin. This is why the Old Covenant was replaced. The New Covenant provides a changed heart, a new spirit, God's Holy Spirit and internal motivation to obey. God gives the strength to obey. It is a joyful obedience that comes from the heart because the heart has been changed.

Look at what Moses tells the people of Israel after they had wandered and complained for forty years: Deuteronomy 29:4 “Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.” Why had they been unsuccessful in following the Lord. God had not given them a heart to see and understand. No law, no list of regulations as good as they may be can provide the new heart and new motivation that is required. But this is exactly what God has promised in the New Covenant.

So Paul has introduced the concept of the law stimulating the sin that was in our unregenerate hearts in verse 5 and the solution to that which is a life of the spirit in verse 6. Next time we'll begin with Romans 7:7 and see how these principles are developed.

Why Did it Have to be a Friend? by Michael Card

Why did it have to be a friend
Who chose to betray the Lord
Why did he use a kiss to show them
That's not what a kiss is for

Only a friend can betray a friend
A stranger has nothing to gain
And only a friend comes close enough
To ever cause so much pain

And why did there have to be thorny
Crown pressed upon His head
It should have been the royal one
Made of jewels and gold instead

It had to be a crown of thorns
Because in this life that we live
For all who seek to love
A thorn is all the world has to give

And why did it have to be
A heavy cross He was made to bare
And why did they nail His feet and hands
His love would have held Him there

It was a cross for on a cross
A thief was supposed to pay
And Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away

Yes, Jesus had come into the world
To steal every heart away

Lord, Increase our Faith

I spoke last night on Matthew 21:22, “And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” Jesus said this during Holy Week after he had cursed the fig tree. This is a hard verse because my immediate tendency is to place all sorts of conditions on the “whatever”. Jesus certainly cannot mean that, can he?

Well, it matters why we are trying to put conditions on his statement. There are other conditions for answered prayer in the scripture besides believing. We are supposed to pray according to God's will. We are supposed to pray in Jesus' name. We are to pray persistently and in agreement with other believers. We are supposed to be those who are abiding in Christ and who are living obedient lives before we can claim that God would answer our prayers. So, yes, there are conditions. My normal reason for responding to this “whatever” is lack of faith rather than the other spiritual conditions. When I respond in unbelief, even the one condition of this verse has been denied.

So given the Scriptural conditions mentioned above, let's look at the promise. First there is the “whatever”. God doesn't promise substitutes, he promises to give us what we ask for. All of the promises of God specify the “it” in one way or another. “Whatever you ask, it will be given you.”

Second, we need to ask. James writes, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2). It seems obvious, but we do need to ask. And in another case Jesus challenged his followers to be persistent in the asking.

Finally, we must believe. Mark 11:24 writes it this way, “Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Here he says that we are to believe that we are receiving them. This occurs before the future tense of we will have them. In other words, our prayer needs to have the faith to believe that the answer is on the way even before it actually arrives. Hebrews 6:12 tells us that it takes faith and patience. There is a believing and a patient waiting. But again, all of this presumes the meeting of all the scriptural conditions for answered prayer. But what a promise! Our faith is so weak at times. We pray and hardly expect God to even hear us let alone answer our prayer. Maybe this needs to be our prayer, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

God's Work in Us the Key to Victory

Yesterday, (See article here.) in discussing the last section of Romans 6, I said, “If God has given you the gift of eternal life by regenerating your spirit, he has also given you a new heart, a new spirit, his Holy Spirit and the motivation to live for him (Ezekiel 36:26-27).”

Here's what that passage says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.”

There's a parallel passage in Jeremiah 31:33-34 “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

The New Covenant promised to Israel included the grace and internal motivation needed to follow God. His law would be in their minds and hearts. God would cause them to walk in his ways. The motivation to do right would flow naturally from a changed inside. This New Covenant was initiated by Jesus when he offered himself as the sacrifice of the New Covenant (See Luke 22:20; 1 Cor 11:25; Hebrews 8:8, 8:13, 9:15, 12:24). Some day it will be fulfilled in its entirety with all Israel but for now it is revealed in the new birth as that takes place in Jews and Gentiles alike around the world from every tribe and nation.

The point that I'm trying to make today as a follow-up of yesterday's discussion is that the warnings at the end of Romans 6 are real. Yielding to sin leads to further disobedience and ultimately death. Whereas yielding to obedience leads to further righteousness and that leads to eternal life. This should not be thought of as though I can just legalistically obey a certain set of regulations and end up in heaven. We are not saved by works but by faith in Christ. But believing in Christ and trusting him for salvation changes us. We become new creatures, old things have passed away, and all things have become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). The grace that God gives us teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly, righteously and godly lives (Titus 2:12). If we don't know or don't care to live righteous and godly lives, we don't have the grace of God at work in us. We are told that God disciplines every son he receives. The purpose of that discipline is holiness (Hebrews 12:10), not the holiness of Christ that we receive positionally, but practical outworking of holiness in our living. The writer of Hebrews tells us that without such holiness we won't see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14). But it is a holiness that is generated by God at work in us as we live in faithful obedience. It is God who works in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure as we work out our salvation in our lives (Phil 2:13).

So it's important that we understand this. Two extremes need to be avoided. The one extreme is that we receive the gift of righteousness from God. He forgives our sins and now we can live however we want and it doesn't matter. We're secure. We'll get in and so all is well. The other extreme is to say, God will be examining our works and they better measure up or we won't get in. We begin to assume that we can earn our justification by our efforts. That is denied countless times in Scripture. If we would put ourselves under the illusion that we can work our way in by our deeds, we put ourselves under a curse because we must do everything perfectly to get in (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10).

We need to live our lives based on the truth that God graciously forgives us of our sins and at the same time, gently works in us to conform us to the image of his Son. God disciplines us as a father. His goal is to draw us back into his arms in loving obedience. His promises of reward and warnings against sin are both meant to draw us to fellowship with himself. A human father does this imperfectly. Our heavenly father knows exactly what it takes and he will be successful (Hebrews 12:10-11).

Victory in Christ Revisited - Romans 6

A few weeks ago I wrote several blog articles about what I called Victory in Christ. This was a series on Romans 6-8. Since then I have done a lot of thinking about the topic and have given considerable thought to Romans 7 especially and how it fits in considering the struggle all of us face as Christians in our efforts to live a life that is pleasing to God and is victorious.

In preparation for a deeper look at Romans 7, here are the main truths that I believe Romans 5-6 are teaching us.

First, Adam's sin was imputed to all of us and thus we are guilty from the moment we're born. Actual sin was not imputed to people when there was no law against those sins and thus God tells us that the law was added so that sin would increase (Romans 5:20), and so that sin might become exceedingly sinful (Romans 7:13).

Second, where sin increased, grace increased more (Romans 5:20). We should look at grace not only as God's gracious forgiveness of our sin, but the motivation and strength to do right (Titus 2:11, 12; 2 Cor 9:8; 2 Cor 8:7; 2 Cor 12:9). So as sin increases, God gives more grace to be able to fight it and overcome victoriously. His grace never lags behind.

But that raises the question as to whether we should sin more so that there will be more grace. The answer, of course, is “no”. It's interesting then that Paul appeals to what we should know and that what we know should help us. We should know that we have been united with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection and ascension. Since we've been united with Christ, we died with him on the cross and we were raised with him and are seated with him in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:5-6). Since this is so, our old man was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be rendered inoperative. We are therefore no longer slaves of sin because we have been freed from it (Romans 6:5-11). Sin's right to rule us has ceased. In light of these truths, we are to count ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God because we are united with Christ. We are to see ourselves as having died already and as living on the resurrection side. The bottom line of this section then is that we should not offer ourselves as weapons to sin, but we should present ourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead.

Next we discover that we are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14), and this results in the understanding that sin shall not have dominion over us. (He's going to explain how sin and law interact in Chapter 7.) This is a promise not a command. But should we sin, since we are not under law but under grace? Paul's argument here beginning at verse 15 is very strong. He says, “Don't you know?” Again he brings up the importance of knowing something. What is it that we are to know? Besides knowing that we are united with Christ, we should know that when we yield ourselves to obey someone, we are in effect a slave of the one who we obey. Regardless of how the law applies, we are defacto slaves if we obey someone else's every command. Even though sin doesn't have legal dominion over us and its power over us has been broken, if we yield to it, we are as good as slaves even if perhaps we are not legally slaves. So he gives two scenarios. We can either yield ourselves to sin which leads to death or we can yield ourselves to obedience which leads to righteousness (Romans 6:16-23). These two masters have two completely opposite results. Yielding to sin leads to further lawlessness and wickedness and ultimately death. Yielding to obedience leads to righteousness, then to holiness (v. 19), which leads ultimately to eternal life (v.22). He summarizes this truth in the familiar verse 23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Does this mean that ultimately salvation is based on our works? If I give in to obedience and to greater righteousness I ultimately work my way to the end which is eternal life? I don't think so because in verse 23 as in many other places of Scripture we learn that eternal life is a gift of God. But what I think this is telling us is that the entire path is a gift of God. The entire gift of salvation includes the desire and motivation to please God. I think this is a warning to those who would claim that they have eternal life and yet live on the disobedience leads to further disobedience leads to death path. You can't follow that path and expect to end up with eternal life. If God has given you the gift of eternal life by regenerating your spirit, he has also given you a new heart, a new spirit, his Holy Spirit and the motivation to live for him (Ezekiel 36:26-27). A Christian will spend less and less time on the death path because he knows it doesn't fit who he is in Christ.

See next post here.

Memorization Monday - Romans 5:8

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Christ died for us while we were sinners. Sometimes we think that we deserve the love of God. Somehow we were a worthy prize for God to gain by coming here to die. Actually, the reverse is the case. God, desiring to show love to unworthy people, paid the ultimate price. God's glory is demonstrated by his rescue of sinners. It is a glory we could not know in any other way.

Hymn of the Week - He Will Hold Me Fast

He Will Hold Me Fast
Vv. 1-2 Ada Habershon (1861-1918)
Alt. Words (vv. 1-2) and Verse 3: Matt Merker

When I fear my faith will fail,
Christ will hold me fast;
When the tempter would prevail,
He will hold me fast.

 

I could never keep my hold,
Through life's fearful path
For my love is often cold,
He must hold me fast.

Refrain

He will hold me fast,
He will hold me fast;
For my Savior loves me so,
He will hold me fast.

Those He saves are His delight,
Christ will hold me fast;
Precious in His holy sight,
He will hold me fast.

He'll not let my soul be lost;
His promises shall last;
Bought by Him at such a cost,
He will hold me fast.

Refrain

For my life He bled and died,

Christ will hold me fast;

Justice has been satisfied;

He will hold me fast.

Raised with Him to endless life;

He will hold me fast;

'til our faith is turned to sight

when He comes at last!

Refrain

Memorization Monday - Ephesians 2:8,9

Eph 2:8-9 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Importance of Unified Praying with Others

I've been focusing on prayer a lot in recent weeks both in preparation for sharing thoughts in our church prayer meeting service and in personal preparation for a stronger prayer life. One of the things I've been impressed with in the New Testament is the emphasis on corporate prayer, prayer as a group. Along with that the Bible stresses the need to be of one accord or like-minded.

First consider this promise: “Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19 While this verse deals primarily with the issue of discipline in the church, it shows both the importance of praying with others and the importance of agreement.

In Acts 2:42 we're told that the followers of Jesus “continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.” There was a steadfastness, a consistency, a sticking to it pattern regarding prayer in the local assembly. We have a similar passage in Acts 1:14, “These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.” In this passage we see both the idea of continuing and the idea of being of one accord, one mind. They were in agreement as to what they were praying for.

On another occasion, after having been released from arrest, Peter and John returned to their fellow Christians and reported all that had taken place. In response the people “raised their voice to God with one accord and said: 'Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them....'” The prayer continues with praise of who God is, a review of events that led to this moment and then a prayer for boldness. In response to their prayer the place was shaken with the power of the Holy Spirit and they went out and spoke with boldness. Their prayer had been answered. It's interesting to note that they spontaneously prayed and they prayed with one accord.

All through the New Testament Christians are exhorted to be of one mind and of one accord. Just think of the power that such unity would bring if it was displayed this way in each local church. God promised that if you pray in agreement, “it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.”

I think each one of us needs to ask ourselves a couple of questions. Do I believe in prayer? Do I demonstrate that by having a consistent personal prayer life? But we need to go further. Do I regularly and consistently meet with other Christians in my assembly and pray with them? And if I do, is our praying of one mind toward the furthering of God's will on earth as it is in heaven?