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How has the gospel transformed your life? Pray for an opportunity to share the good news of the new life you have received!  Share |
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Paul says that we are to walk in step with the Spirit as we live by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25), and in these verses he explains that there will be difficult times to face. When I face suffering, I’m often tempted to moan and groan and wonder what the Lord is doing. Moaning is futile, but verses 18–27 tell us of a kind of groaning which is filled with hope. Paul describes creation groaning, using ‘frustration’ (v 20), ‘bondage to decay’ (v 21) and ‘pains of childbirth’ (v 22) as words to describe this. But this groaning is temporary – one day, it will be turned to glory (v 18). Creation stands on tiptoe in eager excitement for liberation for itself as well as God’s people (vs 19,21; Psalm 98:8 describes this joyful hope). Believers groan, too – but not in despair. We groan because we look forward to a completeness still to come, enjoying God’s glory in perfect resurrection bodies (vs 23–25). The Spirit also groans, as we struggle to know exactly what to pray for (v 26), and the Spirit prays in perfect agreement with God’s will (v 27). We may struggle to know what to pray for, but the Spirit knows as he comes alongside us in our weakness, and puts our groanings into words that make sense to God. Paul then wants us to celebrate God’s eternal commitment to believers. Note the many questions that Paul uses (v 31–36). He is forcing us to stop and consider the wonderful truth of the super-invincibility of the Christian. Who can be against us if God is for us (v 31)? Can anyone bring a charge (v 33)? Can I be separated from the love of Christ by any person or situation (v 35)? Pause and savour each wonderful reminder of God’s total commitment and grace to us in Christ.  Share |
Few subjects have given rise to more debate than predestination.
On one hand we have the clear statements of Paul in Romans 8:28–30. He goes on in the following chapter to talk about the related concept of election. On the other there is clear biblical teaching that all are responsible for their own choices (Romans 14:12).
● We have to take seriously the fact of God’s sovereignty. He is in control of the destiny of the world and of the individual.
● The danger of emphasising the sovereignty of God at the expense of human responsibility is that we end up with fatalism.
● The danger of emphasising human responsibility at the expense of God’s sovereignty is that God ends up as weak, pushed this way and that by human decisions.
So do we end up trying to believe two things which are incompatible? To some extent we have to recognise that our understanding will always be limited. We may never fully reconcile the two.
● Peter in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:23) says that Jesus was handed over in line with the set purpose of God – but that in no way diminishes the role of the human agents – ‘wicked men’.
● Predestination and election are not abstract truths; they are about God calling a people into relationship with himself.
It may help to see God’s control of human destiny not in terms of the architect with a blueprint, but more in terms of a gardener working with organic material, a shepherd leading his sheep to the places that are best for them or a father caring for his children.
John Grayston Share |
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How do you feel about God as Father? And why?  Share |
Romans 8Life Through the Spirit 1Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. 12Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, 14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. 17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
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Adoption In first-century Rome an affluent adult would often adopt a young boy, often a slave (girls were adopted in rare situations), to become their son. Adoption was a public act before witnesses, acknowledging the end of an old life and the beginning of a new one. This new son’s life was forever changed. He received a new status, a new security, new responsibilities and duties, a new family, and an inheritance. Unlike a biological son, the adopted child could never be disowned; he had permanent access to the father. A new beginning Paul articulates his message to the Roman believers using this image of adoption. It’s an illustration that can inform our lives, too. Our heavenly Father has taken the initiative to adopt us into his family (vs 14,15), and has set us free from the fear that enslaves us (v 15). Our old lives are over; we have a new beginning. We can never be forgotten, discarded or rejected, because we have been adopted. We have a new security; we have a new family in our community of believers. We have new responsibilities and duties as the Father commissions us onward; and we have an inheritance (v 17; see also 1 Peter 1:4). God is our Father; we don’t just believe in him, we belong to him. Not on account of what we have done, but on account of who he is. We’re adopted.  Share |
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‘Heavenly Father, show me what it means to be your child, adopted into your family.’  Share |
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