Category: Uncategorized

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

This passage is full of so many wonderfully encouraging words about the relationship that we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing, absolutely nothing, in this temporal, physical realm can separate us from the love of Christ. If I choose to continue to pursue sin in my life, if I desire to live in the ways of the world around me, even if I choose to deny Him, He still loves me and died for me. If I choose to accept this love from Him and try to walk in His footsteps then I will be a conquerer of everything that comes my way knowing that nothing can ever come between God and His love for me. This love is eternal. This love is complete. This love if from Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Romans 8:31-32

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Encouraging Words

Because of who Jesus was, fully God and fully man, and the work that He did of going to the cross as an innocent man, God is for us, His creation. God has always loved us, but when Adam and Eve sinned a chasm between us and God was established and death set in to reign over us. Jesus broke the bondage that death had on us and bridged that chasm so that we can once again be in intimate fellowship with our Father. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:28

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Encouraging Words

Is Paul presenting some kind of prosperity gospel here where God makes everything work together for our good? Absolutely not. If we love God and live our lives for Him according to His purpose, then we will only desire and pursue those things that will glorify Him and edify our neighbor. We will abandon the things of this earth, including all the teachings that we have heard that are contradictory to His teachings and pursue His righteousness. The things of this world; wealth, notoriety, fame, power, will no longer be important to us. God’s economy will be our focus and this is where He will make all things work together for our good. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 8:14-15

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”

Encouraging Words

If we are being lead by the Spirit of God, which means that we have relinquished our self-focused will to Him, then we are seen as sons of God, adopted into His family with all rights and privileges of being a child of the Father. Because of this adoption and the relationship that goes with it, we can approach God with the cry, “Abba, Father”. That term “Abba” is a very special terms, which is not captured fully in the English language. It is a term of endearment. It would be like a little child running up to his father with his arms wide open calling out, “Daddy, Daddy” knowing that his father will sweep him up into his arms, hold him tight to his chest and lovingly protect him from the rough and tough world around him. This is what our “Abba, Father” does for us, if we are His adopted child. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me and forgive me for those times that I quench the leading of Your Spirit!

Romans 8:10

And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Encouraging Words

Even though we are continuing to live out our temporal lives in this fleshly body that we have, a body still beset by sin and that will eventually die, with Christ in us, we will live eternally. That is the key to eternal life. Is Christ in us? Have we truly given our lives over to Him? Is that evidenced by our lives changing to be in His likeness? If Christ is in us, we are alive in the Spirit because of His righteousness. Glory be to God!

Romans 8:1-2

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Encouraging Words

Are you in Christ Jesus? Am I? If we have submitted our lives, our desires, our free will to Christ and striving to lead lives that are not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, then we are in Him. We do not do this perfectly, but we get up every time we fall, return to Him to repent, and get back on track. If we are doing this then there is no condemnation of us before the Father through Christ Jesus. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Romans 7:17-20

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.

Personal Challenge

As long as we remain alive in this earthly tent that we have, we will be dealing with sin. Our flesh, our earthly part, is tempted on every side. It even has within it the desires and passions that drive us to seek sin over righteousness. Our spirit, which has been redeemed, restored, and refreshed by the work of Jesus within us, gives us the desire to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and live a life of righteousness. This is the battle within that Paul writes about, that churning within of the flesh drawing us to sin and our spirit drawing us to righteousness. It is a battle that can be won, but it must be fought with submission to Jesus and the help of the Holy Spirit. Glory be to God!

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words

So many people focus on the first half of this verse that they forget the power of the second half. It is clear throughout the scriptures that we all sin. We do not measure up to the standard that God has set for us. Because of that sin, no matter how minor, we are still separated from God. However, Jesus, who was fully God and fully man, never sinned and gave His life so that the grip that death had on us would be destroyed. He gives us eternal life as a gift through His work done for His Father. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

FROM FREEDOM TO SLAVERY

Romans 6:17-18

But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. 

Personal Challenge

Paul informs us through his letter to the Romans that without Christ we are slaves to sin. He goes on to tell us that when we put our lives in the hands of Jesus and follow Him that we are set free from the bondage of sin, which is eternal death. Christ has put death to death. This passage teaches us that as freed slaves we choose to be obedient to our Lord Jesus Christ and by doing this we become slaves to righteousness, His righteousness. Glory be to God!