Author: Craig

Our church prayer chain circulated a request to pray for Steven and his wife. Steven went to the hospital for severe stomach pain. How should the church pray for this couple?

The easiest thing to say is, “God, bless Steven and his wife.” We have done our duty to pray and can get back to our chores or entertainment. But any real request would be more specific. What kind of a blessing am I seeking for these friends? The chores will have to wait; I owe it to my friend and to the God I am addressing to think a little bit. A boy once said, “sometimes I pray, and sometimes I just say my prayers.” We need to enter into a real conversation with God, not just fall back on memorized or vague platitudes.

Romans 8:26-28 gives us four important truths about prayer. First, We do not know how to pray as we should. We are self centered and short sighted, therefore we don’t know what is really in our own best interest. I know someone who prayed frequently for his troubled son, that the boy might stay on the right side of the law. Finally, the son was arrested and spent a night in a holding cell in a big city jail, in the company of several hardened criminals. He appeared in court in an orange jumpsuit and was remanded to the custody of his parents. And that night he spent on the wrong side of the law was so frightening that he changed immediately for the better. The father’s mistaken, shortsighted prayer was graciously ignored by God.

The Spirit Himself intercedes for us according to God’s will. The same God who is above us running the universe is within us, through the Holy Spirit. God Almighty is able and willing to enter a human heart and change it. He is in two places at once; within you and above and beyond you. Effective prayer happens when God who has made Himself at home in your heart prays to God the Ruler of all. The Holy Spirit forms our prayers and presents them to the Father who can act on them. This is the effective prayer of a righteous person that avails much discussed in James 5:16-18.

Elijah, James tells us, was a man like us; an ordinary, short sighted man subject to the depression that can lead to foolish prayers (I Kings 19:4). How did he pray so powerfully and effectively when he prayed for a three and a half year drought to be followed by a mighty downpour of rain? He prayed what God told him to pray. We can do this too, as the Holy Spirit (God within us) guides us in how to seek the will of God above us.

Pray in the certainty that God’s plan for you is good. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God. His will is better than whatever we could substitute for it. Your heavenly Father loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Prayer is confidently taking hold of His goodness, not trying to persuade Him to reluctantly bless you a little.

A vibrant prayer life comes the same way as every blessing in Romans 8 comes: Everything from God; nothing from you. Remember, God is forming your prayer; you aren’t. How did you escape God’s condemnation? Through the indwelling Holy Spirit (8:1-4). How did you come to have a mind set on the things of the Spirit? That was God’s doing also (8:5-9). How do you have the physical strength and stamina to do God’s will? The Spirit gives life to your mortal body (8:10-13). We could go on and on. Consistently, your new life in Christ is not the result of self effort, it is the gift of God through the indwelling Spirit.

A poor washer woman was carrying a heavy load of laundry when a kind man stopped his wagon and offered her a ride. She gladly accepted. As they travelled on, she kept the heavy basket in her lap. The man invited her to set it down on the floor of the wagon. “O no,” she said, “I don’t want to overburden the horse.” We carry loads that we can and should lay on our Lord. The Holy Spirit can do all the carrying.

“In the same way” the Holy Spirit heals our weak prayer life. God can be in two places at once. He dwells inside you as the Holy Spirit. He is also the transcendent God above and beyond you, ruling the universe as God the Father. Thel same God who controls your destiny is living in your heart. Prayer is God talking to Himself.We are bewildered, ignorant, and selfish. We don’t know what is best for us and those we love. But the God who has a perfect plan for our lives forms the right prayer in us. So our first thought as we pray should be, “God, what do You want me to pray?” A prayer God forms will be a prayer God answers. “Delight thyself in the Lord”; let Him pray His will, “and He will grant you the desires of your heart” He will answer that prayer with a resounding ‘Yes’! So says Psalm 37:4.

God has His own ways of doing His wonderful will. He sees all the possibilities, and He knows how to combine them to get the outcome He desires. We don’t know how to pray. We may have the right hopes but the totally wrong way of making them happen. God the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. He leads us to pray for the will of God to be done. He groans and reaches out for a result that we only dimly foresee. He perfectly forms our prayers if we listen to Him as we pray.

Want to see your prayers powerfully answered? Wait for God’s Spirit- led guidance as you start to pray. God answers the prayers He Himself prays.

People unfamiliar with the Bible sometimes express the thought that we are all children of God just because we are part of the great human family.  The Bible challenges this assumption and declares that we are all by nature completely out of touch with God and we become His children only through adoption.  This is taught in several places in the Bible, including John 1:12-13, Gal.4:3-7, and Eph.1:4-8, as well as the passage we study today, Rom.8:14-19.  Another way the Bible expresses this same idea is when it describes God’s salvation as “choosing”.  God chose Abraham and his family in Gen. 18:17-19.  Abraham had several sons, but God chose one, Isaac, to receive His promise, purpose, and blessing.  Isaac had two sons, and again God chose: “Jacob I loved and Esau I hated”.  Jacob’s twelve sons were progenitors of God’s chosen people, Israel.  The Bible teaches (whether you like it or not) that God saves those He chooses to save.  They are adopted into God’s family, not because of any merit, but just because of God’s grace.  We celebrate God’s choice, but we don’t understand it or deserve it.

In John 8:31-44, Jesus and the Pharisees ask each other, “Who’s your daddy?”.  The Pharisees claim that Abraham is their father; Jesus refutes this, because Abraham was a believer (Gen.15:6) and the Pharisees refuse to believe.  The Pharisees’ next claim is that God is their father, and again Jesus pushes back, because Jesus is the human expression of God and if He is not recognized, you’re not in the family.  Then Jesus identifies the Pharisees’ origin.  Their father is the devil, because they believe his lies and do his will.  “The whole world is lost in the darkness of sin; the light of the world is Jesus”.  Those called to Him become God’s children, by adoption.

Salvation by adoption has several implications.  If everyone is God’s child, you are innately good; if you are adopted into God’s family, you are forgiven.    If everyone is God’s child, God is within; if you are chosen to be God’s child, God is above.  He fights His way in through the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying power.  If everyone is God’s child, you are entitled to God’s blessing.  He owes you.  If you are chosen, God graces you.  If everyone is God’s child, your origin is what’s important.  If you are chosen, your destination is what’s important.  I’m not blessed because I came from God; I’m blessed because I’m going to Him.

Our text tells us that the Holy Spirit God graciously chose to put into us teaches us to call God “Abba, Father”. Abba is an informal term for “father” used by Jewish children in Jesus’ day.  The New Testament is written in Greek, but “abba” is Aramaic, the language Jesus knew as a child.  According to John McArthur, it is “an informal, Aramaic term for father that conveys a sense of intimacy….It connotes tenderness, dependence, and a relationship free of fear or anxiety.”  This is how Jesus addressed God when He was in the garden of Gethsemane.   He didn’t call on God the transcendent father of all, He needed His dear father with whom He had a loving relationship. You need that Abba too, and you have Him in your life through His gracious choice. Congratulations, you adopted child of God.  He has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; not because you deserved it, but just because it was in His heart.  You are part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, to show forth the praises of our wonderful Father!

In spring, I like to look through seed catalogues. It’s fun to anticipate the wonderful things we’ll grow in our yard! Romans chapter 8 is a catalogue of the gifts God makes available to every Christian. The gospel is not only about the death of Christ that forgives our sin; it is also about the life of the risen Christ who dwells in our hearts with life changing power. “He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men (and women)”.

Because Jesus is able to enter a human heart and change it:

There is no condemnation for the believer (Rom.8:1-4). We may sometimes feel guilty and ashamed, but the fact is that we have been declared not guilty before God. Gradually, our feelings come into line with this fact, and we grow in peace love, and hope (Rom.5:1-5).

The Holy Spirit begins to grow some new desires and aspirations in us. “Those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh; but those who are in accord with the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Rom.8:5). The Spirit develops with us a hunger for the Bible, a desire to talk to God, and a need for Christian fellowship. He is rearranging our appetites.

The Spirit “gives life to our mortal bodies” (Rom.8:11). This is not only the promise of the resurrection of our bodies, but it is also the promise that God will give us the necessary strength to accomplish His will for us today. You will not be too tired, too weak, or too sick to complete what He wants you to do. The health and wealth gospel teaches that God wants you to enjoy physical health and strength every day you live, but the promise of Romans 8 is different. God’s purpose is not to bless you with a strong healthy body; His purpose is to make you healthy enough to have a strong healthy spiritual life. Even a “thorn in the flesh” won’t stop his mighty resurrection power released in your spirit, enabling you to do His will.

The Spirit gives us a sense of adoption into God’s family (Rom.8:14-17). The fact is that God has chosen you to be His child. He knew you before you were born, He decided to work in your life to “conform you to the image of His Son”, He developed a purpose for you that would make every day of your life meaningful, and on resurrection day, He will share His glory with you. You’re adopted, and He invites you to call Him “Father”.

The Spirit ignites within us the hope of Christ’s return (Rom.8:18-25). As this world darkens with random acts of violence, war, increasing hopelessness, and confusion, the Spirit gives us the confidence that all this mess will end at the feet of Jesus. In the Spirit, we are “looking for that blessed hope”.

Last in this wonderful gift catalogue is that fact that the Spirit intensifies our prayer life. A little child once said, “sometimes I pray, sometimes I just say my prayers.” There is a difference. An earnest, heartfelt conversation with the Father is a blessing given by the Spirit. God within us talks to God above us in a conversation far better than just “saying our prayers”.

You don’t have to pick and choose in God’s gift catalogue the way I will select seeds from Burpee’s. When the Spirit enters your life, He brings the full array of blessings that Jesus called the abundant life. God “freely gives us all good things”( Rom.8:32) Hallelujah!

“If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in your mortal body, then He who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal body through the Spirit who dwells in you”.

There is a whole lot of good news packed into this little verse. The condition required for Spirit given life has been met – the Spirit of God (who raised Jesus from the dead) DOES dwell in you! As a Christian, you are a hybrid animal; the righteous, life -giving Holy Spirit is housed in a sinful, dying body. No wonder you feel like a confused, frustrated “hot mess”. But God directs us to keep our minds on the resurrection life growing within us, not on our disintegrating bodies.

This increasingly powerful resurrection life is being given to us NOW, because it is delivered by the Spirit who dwells in you now. Someday, spirit and body will part company, and this avenue of resurrection life power will be suspended. But thanks to that flow of life now, today you can expect enough God generated energy and stamina and ability to do everything He calls you to do today. You won’t be too tired, too weak, or too sick to be effective in His service.

One of God’s precious 20th century saints, Watchman Nee, suffered severely from tuberculosis. Immobile in bed, gasping, he was expected to die within a day or two. He remembered this wonderful verse and was reminded by the Spirit that “The just shall live by faith” (Rom.1:17). He then recalled 2 Cor.1:24, “by faith you stand”. He stood up. The third verse he remembered was, “We walk by faith.” with that, he joyfully walked down 25 steps, empowered by faith in the life-giving Holy Spirit. He lived for another 40 years.

The resurrection life celebrated in this verse is “indestructible”, according to Hebrews 7:16. That word literally means “undetachable”. The resurrected Jesus grabs hold of your mortal body with a grip that is never loosened or released. The Amplified Bible translates Hebrews 13:5 like this: “God Himself has said, ‘I will not in any way fail you, nor give you up, nor leave you without support. I will not I will not, I will not in any degree leave you helpless, nor forsake, nor let you down (relax my hold on you). Assuredly not!’” His gift of life is indestructible, his grip on you is undetachable.

The life of Jesus, which is growing in us now, is a down payment of God’s eventual purchase, possession, and complete renovation of our body. Someday resurrection will happen to our mortal bodies, and we’ll walk out of the grave as triumphantly and gloriously as Jesus did. On that day, He will complete the process of giving life to our mortal bodies. Hallelujah!

Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. That is a sweeping, comprehensive statement. The word “condemnation” implies two things: God is paying close attention, and He gives final approval to what He sees.

I know a Christian I greatly admire who thinks that God is too far above and beyond us to notice the little details of our lives. He is trying to handle the war in Ukraine, the tension in the Middle East, the natural disasters that happen frequently…He is too big, and the problems are too big for Him to bother with little old me. Actually, my friend is believing God is too small to handle the whole world and have anything left over for me. The truth as Jesus explains it is that God has numbered every hair on our heads and is aware of every sparrow that falls. He discerns the thoughts and intentions of my heart (Heb.4:12). He is paying attention.

That may not be particularly encouraging. I’m a mess. My thoughts are occasionally hateful, selfish, …maybe disgusting. The devil, my accuser, delights in reminding me of this. So how can a just, holy God look at me with no condemnation?

When I was a boy, I heard a little story that transformed my life, and I delight to recall it in my old age. A little boy (like me) went into a secondhand store to look for a present for his mom. He had no money, just a few good wishes for Mom (again, I identified). He handled a vase clumsily and it dropped and broke. (Yep, me again.) The store owner was in a dark mood. He confronted the young offender, reminding him of the posted sign: “If you break it, you must buy it.” Apologies and excuses aren’t enough, a small crowd is gathering to watch the boy’s humiliation and anxiety. I recognized that this was a story about me breaking God’s rules, about not coveting, respecting my parents, putting Him first, etc. I felt the heat and the hopelessness.

The story continued. A man stepped out of the group of people and reached into his pocket. He made a welcome, gracious offer: “I’ll pay what this boy owes”. What a relief! Jesus’ death on the cross was that gracious gift. I accepted His gift that day, and I live in the glorious relief and freedom brought to me by the cross. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. They may be guilty of breaking the rules, they may be full of shame and fear, but however they FEEL, the FACT is they have been forgiven.

I hope this story is your story too. When you thank God for paying the penalty you owe, you have found forgiveness and friendship with God. No matter what your past contains, no matter how the accuser rages, no matter how you feel, there is no condemnation.

The gospel is the good news that Jesus died to forgive us our sin debt and that HE WAS RAISED SO THAT HE CAN LIVE IN US. Romans chapters 1-5:11 deal with the redeeming death of Jesus, but chapters 5:12-8:39 describe the powerful changes the risen Christ makes in the lives of those who come under his authority. One by one, Paul pulls out from the treasure chest of Romans 8 the beautiful gifts God puts into the lives of those willing to call Jesus “Lord”.

The first of these blessings is that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). ” Condemnation” means two things: first, it means that God inspects a person’s behavior and thoughts. He doesn’t overlook or neglect anyone. He sees us in our entirety. Second, he disapproves of what He sees. “Condemnation” means we are pronounced guilty and then punished. But because Jesus’ death removes sin, those who are in Him are not condemned. All sin must be punished, because God is perfectly holy. But the condemnation a Christian deserves has already been accepted and absorbed by Jesus. Paul exults over this: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?” ( 8:31-34)

The fact that there is no condemnation for us in Christ doesn’t mean that we always feel free and easy. Feelings don’t always follow the facts. But no matter how we feel, the fact is that Jesus has lifted our guilt from us. God looks at His forgiven children with approval and love. As with all the wonderful gifts we will examine in Romans 8, the awareness and the ownership of this freedom from guilt will grow as we continue to walk in the Spirit, but the seed has been planted, and the tree will blossom and bear fruit. Because we are in Jesus, we can stand to look in the mirror. We can stand to face satan, “the accuser of the brethren”. There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus!

The gospel tells us that Jesus (God the Son) died to pay our sin debt and was raised to life to bring us His resurrection life. Thanks to the cross, sin has been disconnected from its power source in our lives, and it is a fading, withering remnant. The resurrected Jesus living in us is the reality we on which we focus. He’s growing us now into His image gradually, so that someday we will enjoy eternity in His presence. The windshield before us is filled with His glory; the rearview mirror has the shrinking picture of the sin which used to control us. So “consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God”.

Phillip Yancey recounts that once a friend told him that he was planning to divorce his wife and abandon his family because he had found someone to whom he was more attracted. He knew this was wrong, but he believed in the gospel’s promise that Jesus forgives sin. What did Phillip think? Would God forgive this ?

“What should we say? ” Paul asks in Rom.6:1, “Shall we continue in sin so that grace might increase?” That’s what Phillip’s friend – and many of us – want to know too. Sin is stubborn and maybe we make our peace with it. We “continue in sin”. After all, other folks are continuing in sins that are a lot worse.

Paul’s immediate answer to this question about continuing in sin is an emphatic “No! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” The gospel doesn’t just deal with our sin; it unites us to the risen Christ, who now lives in us. He is leading us OUT of sin. We think that sin gets between us and Jesus. The gospel promises that Jesus will get between us and sin. The gospel says that (1) Jesus died to forgive us of our sin and (2) He rose to lead us out of sin. You can’t have half of the gospel; it’s all or nothing.

Phillip Yancey’s answer to his friend was, “Yes, God can forgive you. But if you deliberately plan to sin, you will be taking yourself out of His continuing care and His plan for you. You will change; you won’t want to be forgiven. Sure enough, that’s what happened.

We can’t have just the first half of the gospel. God doesn’t forgive sin without entering our hearts and bringing us life change.

A friend of mine was describing troubling symptoms of ill health as he was working on his farm. He had become tired, and he struggled to breath. At the emergency room, he was diagnosed as suffering from a massive heart attack; “the widowmaker”. Thankfully, the hospital staff didn’t treat the symptoms; they didn’t tell him to get more rest and use an inhaler; they found the cause and treated it, and thankfully restored him to health.

Paul has given us a long list of sins in Romans 1 -3; like ingratitude, idolatry, “vile impurity”, greed, sanctimonious hypocrisy…the list goes on. But now, in Romans 5:12-20, he diagnoses the real problem. These sins he has listed are symptoms of one fatal spiritual illness. The virus that brought it to us was in Adam. It is a pandemic, infecting every human being. The symptoms indicate chronic disobedience to God, resulting in a prognosis of death, judgment, and condemnation from God.

When you are distressed with your bad habits, thoughts, and words, don’t just treat the symptoms with good intentions and resolves to do better; look at the cause. The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked; who can know it? As Paul diagnoses the problem – a disobedient heart – he also prescribes the cure. Sin came into the world by one man’s disobedience, and it must be weakened and finally killed by the resurrection life of the one obedient Man, resurrected and therefore able and willing to enter the human heart and change it.

Paul is pivoting here as he unfolds the gospel. He isn’t talking about Jesus the savior who died to bring forgiveness of sins; he is presenting us with Jesus the risen Lord, who enters our hearts to break the power of sin, and lead us toward a life of glorious, fulfilling obedience. Hallelujah!

The Christian faith is based on facts; not feelings. Romans 5:1-5 recounts those facts for us. Fact: You are justified before God. That means that you are lined up straight with Him. The typing on the left side of this paragraph is “justified”; it is not on the right. Since you are lined up with the will and heart of God, you should feel peace (Rom.5:1). Paul goes on to relate more facts to feelings. Since you stand in grace, you feel hope (5:2). The love God gives you releases you to love others (5:5). When we experience stress, God transforms it into joy as we persevere (5:3-4). Your relationship with Christ brings a total transformation, including your feelings. Expect Jesus to bring you joy.

That doesn’t mean than every minute of every day is rapturous. Tribulation turns into joy through a process. Facts remain true no matter how we feel. H.L. Hunt, once the richest man in the world, went to his office every day with a sandwich in a paper bag so he could have an inexpensive lunch. The fact is, he was rich, but he didn’t feel it. We all know there are beautiful people who feel ugly and thin people who feel fat. A person who trusts Jesus for salvation is saved regardless of how they feel at any given moment. But generally, an appreciation of the facts leads to certain appropriate feelings.

When you don’t feel good, see if you can track that feeling back to a belief you have about reality. Satan is a liar and an accuser. Have you accepted one of his lies as factual? Find the truth in the Bible and fight him. “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom…with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col.3:16).

In Romans 3, Paul finally sets forth the Gospel (after telling us how much we need it in Romans 1 and 2). He speaks of redemption, because on the cross God bought us back from satan’s ownership. He talks about propitiation, the satisfying of God’s anger. For those who know the power of the cross, God is not the frowning black robed figure with gnarly hands grasping for thunderbolts to throw at targeted sinners; He is the smiling, dancing God described in Zephaniah 3:17, whose hands are opened wide to embrace his children, The cross is the mercy seat, where the enthroned God comes down in grace to meet the hand raised up in the faith which God himself has supplied (Eph.2:8). The overwhelming, incomprehensible truth is that somehow, God has forgiven those who cling to the cross, those who forsake performance religion and accept a relationship with a loving heavenly Father. These rather complicated ideas can be simplified with an example.

In Romans chapter 4, we meet Abraham, the discoverer of faith. Before him, people tried to please God by their performance; some unsuccessfully, like Adam, others triumphantly, like Noah. But Abraham had to forsake performance and rely completely on God’s goodness. He is the Father of the Faithful. “Abraham believed God, and faith was credited to him as righteousness.”

Paul is quoting Genesis 15:6, the night when God invited Abraham to step outside and count the stars. On that clear night in the desert, 4,000 stars might be visible to the naked eye. As Abraham enjoyed that awesome spectacle, he heard God’s even more awesome promise: “so shall your descendants be.”

Paul reminds us that at this time, Abraham was about 100 years old, married to a 90 year old woman who had never been able to bear children. “Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able to perform ” He believed that God could and would do what Abraham could not.

God specializes in impossibilities: the virgin womb, the empty tomb, the 100 year old childless man that God has named “Abraham”, the father of a multitude. Sometimes we say that God will not give us a burden we cannot handle. The truth is that God will give us burdens we can’t handle, but He will not give us a burden that HE can’t handle.

When it comes to our eternal future, as well as our daily walk with God, we can’t handle the burden ourselves. The faith of Abraham says we don’t have to. “What God has promised HE is able to perform.”