Apostles Creed, #5

Continuing in the Apostles Creed... I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,

"And in Jesus Christ,"

I trust in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the "Joshua" who leads us into the fullest salvation.

Christ is the Messiah, the Anointed One of Israel, the Son of David.

He is full of the Spirit of God without measure.

He is bringing us to a place of perfect rejoicing.

2 Chronicles 6:41 “And now arise, O Lord God, and go to your resting place,

you and the ark of your might.

Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation,
and let your saints rejoice in your goodness.
42 O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one!
Remember your steadfast love for David your servant.”

Apostles Creed, #4

Continuing in the Apostles Creed... I believe in God the Father Almighty,

"Maker of heaven and earth,"

It is God who created and sustains heaven and earth.

Heaven is real.

It is a glorious realm beyond this world where He dwells with angels and people.

The earth is real, and God can be known here.

There is a purpose for this earth and all its inhabitants, because our Creator is purposeful.

I have a purpose, and you have a purpose.

He created us in His image, that we might glorify Him and enjoy Him, now and forever.

Isaiah 42:5 Thus says God, the Lord,
who created the heavens and stretched them out,
who spread out the earth and what comes from it,
who gives breath to the people on it
and spirit to those who walk in it:
6 “I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness;
I will take you by the hand and keep you;
I will give you as a covenant for the people,
a light for the nations,
7 to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
8 I am the Lord; that is my name;
my glory I give to no other,
nor my praise to carved idols.
9 Behold, the former things have come to pass,
and new things I now declare;
before they spring forth
I tell you of them.”

Apostles Creed, #3

Continuing in the Apostles Creed... I believe in God

"the Father Almighty,"

The God I trust in is the Father Almighty.

He is the eternal Father of one eternal Son, who is Israel's Messiah.

Through this one Son, the Father Almighty has become my Father.

He is always and forever the Father.

He is always and forever Almighty God.

Isaiah 63:16 For you are our Father,

though Abraham does not know us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O Lord, are our Father,

our Redeemer from of old is your name.

Psalm 2:11 Serve the Lord with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
12 Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

Apostles Creed, #2

Continuing in the Apostles Creed... I believe

"in God"

I believe in God.

I trust in God.

He is the only Supreme Being, and the uncaused Cause of all things.

To trust in the God of Israel is to trust in the One who is far above all gods.

Psalm 97:6 The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
7 All worshipers of images are put to shame,
who make their boast in worthless idols;
worship him, all you gods!

8 Zion hears and is glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9 For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above all gods.

Apostles Creed, #1

"I believe"

The beginning of the Apostles Creed...

To believe is to trust, to trust in something greater than self, greater than the autonomous individual.

Prov 3:5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes;

fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh
and refreshment to your bones.

Apostles Creed, 10 Commandments, Lord's Prayer

I have been very thankful for Matt's devotional series for the church based on these great Christian classics.

How about you?

We use Matt's prayers in morning worship.

By the way, we will be starting up again M-Th, 9-9:30am on the day after Labor Day. We are on 1 Corinthians 1.

More talk with God from Romans 16

For now we have the privilege of working together in the church for Your good purposes. We have a variety of people from different backgrounds, and we have different gifts and abilities. Whatever we have in our hands we should put to good use according to Your purposes. We should have a warm affection for all who are in Christ, but we must be wise in recognizing the incursions of evil into the church, particularly among those who are false teachers. We look for Your eternal glory, O Lord.

More talk with God from Romans 15

... Fill us with hope, a virtue of tremendous present value, empowered by the facts of the future, which have been promised to us in the past. We should use our lives in accord with Your calling upon us, and the needs of Your kingdom.

Prayer based on Ezekiel 7

Great King of Heaven, Your wrath against sin is justified and completely righteous. Any trouble that could ever come against us is more than deserved because of our sins. All of this righteous punishment came upon Your beloved Son on the cross. He took this great wrath and has worked out the demands of Your holy justice for Your servants. Thank You, O Lord. We will not be ungrateful for such a wonderful love. Take away from us the love of sinning, so that we will worship You from the heart. We long for our complete sanctification, not only for us, but for all Your elect. Today the church is full of bloody crimes and envious rebellion. Only You can change us, O Lord. We plead the blood of Christ. Our hope is only in You, O God.

Prayer based on Leviticus 26

God of Glory, You who made the heavens and the earth, why would we make idols? Why would we hate the rest that You so kindly bestowed upon us? Why would we turn away from Your Law? You have granted to us great promises for all who will believe and obey. Your Son has won for us the fullness of every blessing. We thank You, O God. By our own hypocrisy and disobedience we deserved the fullness of discipline from Your hand. You have disciplined us in love, but not as much as we have deserved. We turn to You now. We will not walk contrary to You. Please do not send the curse of the covenant of works upon us. Please do not send Your fury against us. Your Son has fully atoned for our sins. Grant us a full mercy forever, Bring us rest in Jesus Christ. Take away our tears and our anxiety. We shall not perish forever. Please bring us resurrection lives. Do not leave our bodies in the grave forever. Come soon, Lord Jesus. We know that we have spurned Your rules, but we hate our sin. You know that we cannot take much trouble or we will be ruined. We have had high spiritual pretensions, but low spiritual attainments. We have been given so much, and much is rightly required of us. Please forgive us.

Questions about Elijah that make me think of Jesus

I've been working on a list of questions as I read the Old Testament. Here are some from the end of 1 Kings that have me thinking more about Jesus as prophet. The asterisks are for those that are best answered through an understanding of Messiah that is witnessed to in the New Testament and longed for in the Old.


*1 Kings 17:22, 24 What kind of communication with and from the Almighty should be expected from the true prophet of God?

*1 Kings 18:17-18 Why is it not that surprising that Elijah, a true prophet of Israel, should be called a troubler of Israel by Ahab?
1 Kings 18:29 What kind of true communication with God can be expected through false worship of false deities?
*1 Kings 18:36, 39 What was the point of Elijah's victory in his contest with the prophets of Baal?

1 Kings 19:1-3 How is it the Elijah could be afraid of Jezebel after God's vindication of him at Mount Carmel?
*1 Kings 19:8 How could the prophet of God live for forty days and forty nights in the wilderness without food?
*1 Kings 19:18 How big was the true Israel of God in the days of Elijah?

*1 Kings 20:13 How is it that the God of Israel still showed mercy to His people when so few were faithful to Him?
1 Kings 20:42-43 Why was God angry with Ahab in the matter of Ahab's mercy to Ben-hadad of Syria?

1 Kings 21:7 What was Jezebel's understanding of what it meant to govern Israel?
1 Kings 21:29 Could it be that God would respond even to a man like Ahab when he humbled himself before God?

*1 Kings 22:14, 28 What is the message of the true prophet of the Lord?

Romans 16

We have been looking at some very helpful principles of Christian service in the last several chapters of Romans. Now we need to conclude this great epistle with the benefit of seeing some actual Christian servants. In our lives, the blessing of an example to observe and imitate is of great use in putting principles into practice. Christianity is an incarnational religion. It is the story of a God who visits us in order to rescue us; a religion where we grow together in faith working itself out through love.

Phoebe, who is called here a servant of the church, is just such an example to us. Paul is able to recommend her wholeheartedly to the church in Rome. He does not even have to explain what projects she is going to be working on in Rome, because she is such a trustworthy woman. This must mean that she was very capable, sensible, godly, and commendable in every way. He simply says, "Help her in whatever she may need from you." He also points to her proven record of practical care for Paul, and for many others in the church. This is a great endorsement.

Paul goes on to mention Prisca and Aquila, who he apparently knows to be in Rome at this time. This couple has been exemplary in their Christian service. They have faced situations of great danger together because of their close association with Paul and the message of Jesus Christ. It is one of the delights of our experience in the Christian church that we are brought into contact with many such couples. They work together for the Lord. They each have capabilities that are peacefully and productively used in kingdom work. Many churches that are started, and many acts of great service are pursued, not as the work of individuals, but as the enterprise of one or more couples that God's uses to move His kingdom forward in specific endeavors within this dangerous world. The yield of such loving labors is often more than the people themselves realize. Paul says here that all the Gentile churches have something of a debt of gratitude to the kindness and ability of Prisca and Aquila, now hosting one of the many gatherings of believers in the capital of the Roman Empire.

There are others who are well-known to God for their courage in believing when the faith was first being preached in one city or another. Some are Jews, but others are Gentiles. Some have positions of some public responsibility, but others are surely simple believers who have taken their two copper coins and given what they had to the Lord they love. They are approved in Christ through His shed blood. They are part of the family of God, suffering together for the Name. They are fellow workers in a common enterprise of the greatest importance, the building up of the household of faith throughout the world. They are beloved in the Lord, who work hard for the gospel of grace. They are chosen by God to share together the warmth of a common life together in Christ. Even those who have never heard of their names but who share their devotion to the Savior who died for us, are sending them warm greetings at the end of this important epistle.

It is amazing that God, the Almighty One, knows His people. He knows us by name. He knows our struggles and our works that we perform together for the kingdom. He is very much on our side, and we are very much a part of His family in Jesus Christ. With this wonderful truth in mind, we need to flee from any who would try to break apart what the Lord has put together. The church is to be united in Christ. We need to know enough about evil to see it for what it is and confront it before the enemies of the gospel are permitted to bring serious damage upon the church. There is an adversary against us from angelic realms, but the Lord Jesus is crushing him under the feet of His people by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that is with us and in us.

When all is said and done, this jewel of a book ends with the One who deserves all our praise. The height of Christian doctrine and practice is not in Phoebe, or even in some great couple like Prisca and Aquilla, or in the most amazing apostle who God gives to the church, or in the entire church as the bride; but in God and His Christ, the Son of God, who is the Husband of the church, and the very face of the Almighty One. May all glory and honor be given to the Triune God! He is able to strengthen us according to the Word. We have heard and believed the good news as Christ was preached among us. He is the One who is bringing Jew and Gentile together in one glorious church, saved through one Substitute for sinners. He is the One who is bringing about the obedience of faith according to His own plan, and through the means of His own Word. To Him be glory forevermore, through Jesus Christ! Amen.

Romans 15

One of the great privileges that we have in the church is the blessing that comes from our new world of connected life together. It is also one of the things that makes the Christian life seem so strange to autonomous spiritualists. What we do and say makes a big difference to those around us. Paul has made this point in a variety of ways in these chapters on Christian living. This kind of careful, caring, connected life is an obligation for those who claim an association with a Savior who shed His blood for His family. The way of autonomy is so natural to us; pleasing ourselves and trusting our feelings to guide us into our moment by moment life choices seems almost like the only way anyone could ever live and still be true to himself.

This is all very short-sighted. Informed self-interest would cause us to consider the solid joys and lasting treasures of eternity, and to rejoice in God and His goodness now. This life of better pleasure would cause us to live beyond self. It is one of the greatest ironies of spiritual autonomy that living for self is not consistent with what is best for self. The way of greater pleasures is found in a God-focused life and in a heart that desires to please others for their good, building them up. This should be clear to us, since we see it so plainly in the cross. What was our King doing there? The cross is not the strategy of the autonomous spiritualist. It is the place where the One does something for the good of the many, with the goal that we should live in harmony with Him and with one another forever. People who believe such things welcome the weak.

This understanding of the cross as the ultimate in other-centered living must begin with the glory of God. The mission of the cross insists on the greatest possible object of our desire and affection. When Jesus went to the cross, He did it first out of desire for the Father, and out of love for the Father. Living in a way that puts God first is the only thing that makes any sense. God is first. To desire Him above all and to love Him above all is the only honest way to live. Something less than that goal is twisted, irrational, and ultimately perverse. Starting with this highest motive, we receive His command that we care for one another as a natural extension of the pleasure we have in Him.

The pleasure of God becomes our pleasure. If He has a settled affection for Jews and Gentiles who would be with Him forever, then we must dedicate ourselves to His purpose to glorify His own Name in saving Jews and Gentiles through a Redeemer. God wants Gentiles to rejoice in Him along with Jews who are called by His Name. That's what He wants, so that is our pleasure too. The Jewish Messiah, Jesus, is the hope of millions of Gentiles today, in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies. The day will come when we will see His rule over the renewed earth. We hear of His great plan, and we believe. In our believing we are granted joy and peace, and we have a taste even now of what it is to walk by the Holy Spirit, but we are looking for more than a taste.

One way to look at the story of the entire Bible is through the lens of the calling of Jews and Gentiles into one body in Christ. All of the Hebrew Scriptures that we call the Old Testament is a document of preparation for the coming of the One from the Jews who will be the sacrificial Agent of redemption for all Jews and Gentiles who will call upon His Name, Jesus Christ. The New Testament is the explanation of how these Hebrew Scriptures have now been fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The time has now come for the gathering of the nations into the fold of Israel.

This is more than just an interesting story. This is God's plan, and each of us should consider our part in this plan. We are all called to live sacrificially for the Man who sacrificed His life for us. Paul understood His part in this plan very well. How are you called to give yourself away for the glory of God? This is the way of the greatest glory for God and the greatest enjoyment for you within a connected body of beloved neighbors and friends all over the world who have embraced the Savior who embraced us first in His death on the cross.

For Paul this meant going from Jerusalem to far-off lands with the aim of seeing the church established where Christ was not yet known. There were others who supported these efforts with prayer and giving, as they longed for the glory of God through the success of these apostolic endeavors. Still others were more engaged in teaching and care for the poor within existing congregations. All were called to worship God, and to believe the good news of Christ that they were being taught. All were called to be true to their vocations within their families, and they were are called to follow the Lord in His care for others around them. In all of these good ways, the will of God is being accomplished in the building of His kingdom, and people who have never been told of him are now seeing; those who have never heard of Him are coming to understand what the Lord has done for them. This is way that all of us get to rejoice in the fact of the gospel going to Spain, and the poor being given food in Jerusalem, and many other great projects being accomplished that are way beyond us.

None of this is easy. It is a battle. It is a fight. Yet this work can be done with joy since we know about the victory of the cross. The Lord will not be stopped. He will accomplish all of His purposes. Jews and Gentiles will be together with God forever, and the perfect peace of the God who gave us His dying love will be with us in a world of resurrection glory forever.

Romans 14

Paul writes to the church as a servant of the Lord who has encountered all kinds of pastoral difficulties in many different settings. He knows that people within any church differ concerning the relative strength of their faith. One of the difficulties in addressing weakness in the body of Christ is that some of those who may consider themselves the most strong, are in fact the most weak. Someone may be very strong in a certain kind of knowledge, and certain types of moral behavior, and yet be very weak in the gospel. A person may also have a very strong personality, and have wonderful strengths in natural giftedness, and yet be very weak in the gospel.

In particular, there were those in the first century church who considered themselves exemplary concerning the Law, or worthy of imitation concerning what they did or did not do, and yet they had an inadequate appreciation of the way of grace, and a lack of understanding concerning those things that are within the bounds of true Christian freedom. From Paul's standpoint such people were the weak ones, and those who were strong in the gospel needed to welcome in those weaker brethren into the fellowship of the church, but not in order to give in to their continual desire to dispute things and to cause unnecessary divisions.

One of the disputes that divided people unnecessarily in the early church had to do with meat. Those strong in the gospel knew that Christians had great freedom concerning what they decided to eat, and that all foods were clean provided that a person could eat them in faith. The weak person might assume that eating meat that had been in some way touched by some pagan practice was always wrong, and so they kept the matter clear in their own minds by eating only vegetables. Getting everyone to the strong position in good conscience might not have always been possible. How was the church to live with the difference of opinion? The strong ones (who know they can eat everything) should not hate the weak, and the weak ones (who think that people should never eat meat) should not judge those who have made a different choice. There is a right Christian tolerance on these disputable matters, and all of us should remember that God has welcomed all those who call upon the name of the Lord and their families into the church. It is the Lord who has called us His sons in Christ, and it is in Him that we stand.

A second example had to do with the religious observance of some special days. We are not told what the disagreement was here, and the Greek is even harder to figure out than the English. One man regards one day; another regards all days. Whatever the issue was, and maybe it is just as well that we don't know, the general principles of dealing with such issues are clear. 1. Each person should do what he is fully convinced is right in His own conscience at any given moment, since it is always wrong to sin against your conscience. 2. Whatever any man does, he should do it for the glory and honor of the Lord, giving thanks to God. If that seems impossible to do in the specific matter at hand, could it be that the thing in question is actually wrong?

This second point should be expanded. Whatever we do, we need to do for the Lord, because we belong to Him. It is God who is the Author of our life here and the Author of our life beyond this mortal world. Christ, through His death, has purchased a people for the Father. Jesus has become the Lord of the living and the dead. How we spend the number of days that He has given us on this earth should be decided with a decisive consideration of the fact that He is our Lord. When we die and go to be with Him where He is, He does not stop being our Lord. The thing that does stop there is our sin, and not our service. Furthermore, we will all stand before His judgment seat. God has prepared works in advance for us that we should walk in them now, and there will be good works for us to walk in there as well in the present heaven. It is God's to pass judgment on our use of time for His glory.

We have talked about our own consciences; we have mentioned our own assessments of what would most glorify the Lord; a third principle to help us in these challenging situations is the rule of love for our brother in Christ. Is my freedom, as one who is strong in the gospel, going to tempt a weaker brother to stumble into what he may think of as sin? Is that love? Why not rather restrict my own freedom willingly in order to avoid unproductive and harmful interactions within the church that will only produce unnecessary trouble?

This is not to say that there is not a right position on what we are allowed to eat and drink, and on our understanding of how we are to regard one day as opposed to another. These things can be considered in the light of the Scriptures, and we can all hope that we will all be able to agree one day that what God calls "good" is truly good. Until that day comes, lets not forget the importance of Christ, the cross, the resurrection, and the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of God is not all about whether we eat meat, drink wine, or do certain things on certain days. The kingdom of God yields a new kind of life that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and is full of righteousness, peace, and joy.

This is the life we need to pursue. Whatever strength we have in the gospel, we need to remember our peace with God that has come to us through the blood of His Son, and not through our being right on all kinds of debatable issues. Let us build up one another as the beloved of the Lord, and not tear each other down. Let us be willing to restrict our freedom of expression for a season if that would be the best thing for the family of God. Let us live in accord with our faith in the worthiness and blood of the Lamb of God, submitting to the Word of the One we call "Lord," knowing that whatever does not proceed from that faith is sin.

Romans 13

How do we view the various authority structures within this world? The way that we answer this question has a very big impact upon our Christian living. As with all of our life decisions, our answer here needs to be informed by the Christian thinking that we have come to embrace. Are we to consider our life in Christ as the life of autonomous individuals saved by His grace, or is there a different way to view the Christian life that gives a more serious and substantial place to the authorities established by the Head of all lawful authority, namely God?

Paul is well aware that civil authorities had the capability of acting as an enemy of the church and of Christian families and individuals. Despite this fact, He teaches us that all lawful rulers come from God, and that Christians need to recognize this by being submissive to the governing authorities. We know that any system of submission to authority on this earth has to have some limits. We cannot submit to anyone who would insist that we violate God's Law. We see this in Acts 5 when the Apostles are commanded by those in power to be silent concerning Christ. Their response: "We must obey God rather than men."

Despite this one exception, the general rule for Christians is godly submission to rulers. We are able to serve them as unto the Lord, since God is the power behind any true throne. He sets up rulers and brings them down. He is sovereign over every king, and He may even discipline us and bless us through His suffering providences toward us. Because of this, when we wrongly resist authority, we resist God.

Not only that, but rulers are designed by God to aid us in the way of goodness. Though they may err and sin in the way they use the power that they have been given, their weapons provide a powerful incentive, even to the church, to avoid things like murder, adultery, stealing, slander, and insurrection. It is a good thing for us to try to stay on the right side of those in civil power whenever we can possibly do so. They are God's servant for our good, and agents of God's vengeance when we stray into behaviors of public evil.

We can have many questions of conscience that give us some significant difficulty in answering. There is an easy rule that can keep us out of jail. It is not right to violate the established and enforced laws of men unless obeying the government would force us to sin against God. In those rare cases we must obey God, and take the jail time that may come our way, or flee from such an unjust government, so that we can peacefully live in some other jurisdiction more respectful of the Lord's commandments.

On many occasions in the course of Biblical history the enemies of God attempt to use the power of civil authority unjustly against the Lord's servants. Paul faced this, and so did Jesus. The reason that Jesus was nailed to a Roman cross rather than stoned by a Jewish mob was that His enemies had decided to try to use Roman civil authority against Him. They attempted to make the case that Jesus was dangerous to the peace of Palestine, and that Pilate was no friend of Caesar if he let Jesus live. Yet even in the cases of Jesus and Paul, the King of kings had a way of working out His sovereign will, even through the hands of those who would defy Him.

The evil of others does not give us a valid excuse to live as Christian insurrectionists. Out of reverence for our King, who suffered so unjustly at the hands of those who had the power of the sword, we need to willingly pay taxes and show honor to people that we may not entirely admire. This should not surprise us if we remember that our Savior commanded us to love our enemies.

To live foolishly and rebelliously is to live as if we had no hope. That kind of life can put any man behind bars. We are not drunken pleasure-seekers hoping to drown out the sound of the truth of futility with something that will at least dull the pain and help us to forget. We are those who have heard of the divine love of Jesus and the cross, and have believed in his resurrection and ours. The truth for us is good news. We do not want to fill our small hearts with the lesser lusts of sexual conquests and verbal and physical abuse of those we hate. We choose the far greater pleasures of Christ and His kingdom, and find that we have less of an appetite for the fruit that some enemy might want is to take a small bite of.

This way of life should make us good citizens of almost any land. If we suffer, we need not suffer as evil-doers, but as those who are facing unjust persecution. If we must face that king of trial, we can rejoice, and entrust ourselves to God. We know that the world is subject to His perfect judgment. We know that He, our all-knowing and righteous judge, is the Judge of all the earth, and He will do what is right.

More talk with God from Romans 14

Not everyone in the community of faith will see everything the same way. There are even some who are genuinely weaker than others, imagining things to be against Your Law that are instead simply matters of lawful freedom. For those who are stronger in the gospel, there is an opportunity to love the weak here. This life is about living to Your Son, our Lord, and we don’t do this very well. We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Let us all pursue love, and we will stand, for You are able to make us stand. Let us walk in faith and not in doubt.

Five Pillars

Which list is God's? What are the true pillars of God-based faith?



5 Pillars of Non-Practicingism

1. There is a god.
2. I am not rejecting that god.
3. I loosely embrace the tradition I am most comfortable with.
4. I disturb no one with any faith claims.
5. I ask that no one disturb me with their faith claims.

5 Pillars of Calvinism

1. The All-Surpassing Glory of God
2. The Surprising Depth of Human Sin
3. The Perfect Righteousness and Atoning Sacrifice of Jesus Christ
4. The Powerful and Orderly Plan of New Testament Church Life
5. The Resulting Witness to and Transformation of a Dying World

More talk with God from Romans 13

In this world we have governing authorities who have been instituted by You for Your good purposes. We should submit like Daniel did in Babylon. This world is not our Zion right now. It is our Babylon, and we are exiles here, yet the meek shall inherit the earth. We should follow Your commandments in the way of love, which is the fulfilling of the Law. Salvation is near to us. We will enter into it at our death as we are brought into the blessedness of the present heaven. Even now, we should put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for continuing in the way of sin.

More talk with God from Romans 12

There is a way to live in light of the glory of this great grace. We are not to be like the world, but to have humility, faith, generosity, grace, and a yielded giftedness. We will one day use our gifts perfectly. It is ours to move toward this goal even now, even though we live in a world of not only weakness, but persecution. It is our privilege to bless all, though we suffer, and to trust that You will repay what must be repaid. We must not be overcome by evil. On the contrary, it is ours to overcome evil with good.

Speaking of Romans 12: "Rejoice with those who rejoice!"

From Skip and Connie:

"Hunter was right! "Perfect" is the only way to say it.
What joy to hold our grandson!"

Romans 12

How shall we live as those who have been so greatly blessed by the grace of God? The Apostle Paul has spent eleven chapters persuading us that we are the recipients, not of what we deserve according to our works, but of the mercies of God. This kind of mercy must have implications for those who have embraced it? What kind of life makes sense for those who truly believe in the eternal mercies that have come to us through the cross of our Redeemer?

Jesus died for us. Paul tells us that it is ours to live for Him. His death was a sacrifice acceptable to God. Our lives are also to be a sacrifice, but a living one. A life lived with true gospel gratitude adorned with great fruits of the obedience that proceeds from faith is a life lived as an act of spiritual worship to God. Paul says that such a life is holy and acceptable when it is offered up to God through the perfection of Christ. How many of us allow ourselves to believe such good news about our acts of service to the Lord? We feel our shortcomings and weaknesses and easily focus on these. We can readily see that our obedience is still stained by our impure motives, words, and actions. Have we every really considered that our service of the Lord is holy and acceptable to Him because of our union with His Son?

This fits in well with the proclamation of Christ, assuring us that we will one day hear these words, "Well done thou good and faithful servant." We do not have to try to impress God in order to win His love. We do not have to struggle for His attention and affection. He already loves us to the fullest in Christ who lived and died for us. As those who already possess His fatherly approval, we can let our hearts and lives be conformed to the heart and life of the God we worship, the God who loves us. What does God love? What does he command? What does He approve of? These are the things we should do. What does He hate? What does He forbid? These things are not for us.

The heart and mind of God for us is expressed perfectly in His Word. This is the only worthy pattern for us. We need not bother wasting our time trying to fit into everything that is applauded by everyone else, as if having God's approval, we now need to search for every approval as well. This kind of man-pleasing and world-imitating behavior is a huge waste of both time and emotional energy for the people of God. What we do need is the transforming of our minds by the living Word of God, so that we will be able to test our plans and actions according to the Scriptures. This is a pathway that God considers, "good, acceptable, and perfect."

The way of the world is a way of satisfying self first with what turns out to be the lesser pleasures of the applause and approval of people. It is a way of pride, rather than a way of true assessment of our gifts that would help us to ascertain the Lord's good purpose for us in our day. The way of the church is to see the gifts that God has given from on high for teaching and serving, and also for being taught and for being served, and finding contentment in the place that God has ordained for us within the body of His Son.

All of what we say and do can be an offering to God, if we are able to do it with genuine love. Genuine love does not pretend that evil is good, or that good is evil. It cleaves to one, and abhors the other. Love is lived out in accord with truth. Love acknowledges the institution of the church as the family and household of God, and is willing to care for those in need within that family. Love does not insist on the highest seat of honor, but remembers that our King washed His disciples feet before He carried the cross on which He would meet His mortal end.

Though love is aware of the distinction between the church and the world, it cares for strangers in our midst and seeks the overflow of God's blessings everywhere. There may be those who persecute us in various times and places, but love need not quit because of fiery opposition. Love can respond to enemies with uncommon generosity. Love tries to live at peace. This is not always possible, but it is the right desire of the one who knows that He is loved by the Almighty, for we have received far better treatment from God than we deserved.

It is the fact of gospel mercy through the cross of Christ that empowers this kind of renewed living. The cross that saved us also informs us, encourages us, and even compels us to live a life of love. What is the heart of God in any situation as He has revealed His will in the Scriptures? May this be our willing heart as well. Surely this is a prayer that He will be happy to answer. This is the way to have victory over evil, by serving up the love of which we ourselves have been partakers. God has told us to leave any wrath to Him. He has given us everything necessary to pour out His love upon the church and the world through sinners like us, sinners who serve Him, and whose efforts He calls both holy and acceptable in Christ.

Romans 11

Paul's epistles often begin with a section on Christian thinking, and then conclude with a section on Christian living. Romans has perhaps the most substantial section on Christian thinking of any book in the Bible. With Romans 11 we have the conclusion to this section. Paul started this 11 chapter treatise with three chapters on the universal sinfulness of mankind. He ends with three chapters on the sovereignty of God in solving that massive problem. The two sections are related. Because the problem of our sin is so very deep, and because sin is a universal stain, not only on Gentiles, but even on Jews, only God can solve this problem. Therefore, we should not be surprised that any work of salvation in any life would have to originate in God, and not in man. Even God's use of men in that process of redemption, as in the preaching of the Word through the church, must be understood as an expression of the sovereign power and love of our Almighty Redeemer.

In this great work of redemption, God has not forgotten His Old Testament covenant people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Israel is His son, and God is Israel's Father. The Lord has a great plan of blessing that has come to include the Gentiles, but He will never walk away from His glorious plan for the redemption of His son, elect Israel. God grieves. He also endures in perfect hope, so He keeps on going, of course. But we should not think that because He endures and because He continues to work that He no longer cares about His son. God loves elect Israel, even down to a thousand generations. He cares, and He is powerful to save. In this chapter. Paul, a descendant of the Jewish tribe of Benjamin, reveals some of God's great mystery of how the Lord will continue to express His love for His Israel, and how He will win back so many of the descendants of Jacob. His plan is to do this through the jealousy that they will experience as so many of the Gentiles will be adopted into the household of the Jewish Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is not to suggest that every natural descendant of Jacob will be saved, but it is to say that God is still claiming every one of those descendants that He has loved from long before Abraham was born. The foreknowledge of God is not some mere awareness of the facts of the future. It is that foreknowledge which is the intimacy of electing love. God has not rejected even one of His people whom He foreknew. God grieves not only for the son who dies. He grieves for the son who will no longer hear His Word, who rebels, and who wanders away. God will not be content with this end of the story for any of His beloved chosen children.

The Jew who already loves Jesus today may feel that He is all alone, like Elijah in the wilderness, but God reserves for Himself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. These stand for a remnant of Israel who have been chosen by God's grace. Many of the Israelites in the day of Paul were hardened against God, and pursued His favor as if they could obtain it by works. But we should not be surprised if many of the descendants of such men and women would yet one day be softened in their hearts toward Jesus of Nazareth, God's only-begotten Son. God is not planning on the fall of His chosen people just because so many have stumbled over the stumbling stone of Christ. Their momentary hardening against their Father has made room now for the Gentiles to be brought into the household of God.

God's electing love was not only for Jews, but also for Gentiles. Today is still a great day for the descendants of Ham and Japheth, the descendants of Ishmael, and the peoples of those tribes that hated Israel. They can find life in Jesus. But the day will surely come when God will cause the jealousy of His true son Israel to abound. It should be a very obvious thing for many Jews to discover a Jewish Messiah, especially when so many Gentiles have found their way into the family of the Lord our God. God has not hardened his rebellious son Israel forever, but only for a time. As the day draws near for the fulfillment of the Lord's great plan to bring life from the dead, we should expect to see the longings of God's heart for elect Israel to be wonderfully achieved.

There will be one great Isrealite tree of God, a tree with natural Jewish branches, with some wild Gentile braches that have now been grafted in, and with some Jewish branches that were once cut off that can now be grafted back in again. This is what it will mean for all Israel to be saved. The full number of the elect sons of God of both the Jews and the Gentiles will rejoice in His presence together as brothers and sisters in the kingdom through Jesus the King. The way for everyone is through faith in the Messiah who shed His blood for all the beloved. This is the way that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through Abraham.

More than that, this is the wonder of the wisdom of God: He will fulfill all of His great promises of electing love, He will save Jews, He will save Gentiles, and He will graft them all together into one vibrant and fruitful family tree. This is the plan that is being lived out before our eyes now. If there has been a time of hardening, if there has been a time of disobedience, surely it fits into a larger and better plan of God, a plan that will be full of mercy, when all of our rebellion and foolishness will be cast forever far behind us. "Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!" Our God has done it all. Praise to the Father for His electing love! Praise to the Son for His atoning sacrifice! Praise to the Spirit for His sanctifying power! Praise the Triune God all the ends of the earth! "For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen."

Romans 10

Paul loves His countrymen, the Jews, and He longs for them to be saved. Some, of course, have already embraced the Jewish Messiah, Jesus Christ. The Apostle himself is in this group of Christian Jews. Others will come to Christ later. Paul has established in the prior chapter that people come to faith according to the sovereign power of God according to His decree of election. This does not at all negate the responsibility of the church to proclaim the message of Christ, nor does it at all negate the need for people everywhere to respond to that message. It is the power of God in election that demands that the church be used according to God's will as His instrument in the plan of salvation, and it is that same electing love that assures us that God will use the means that He has appointed, even us, to accomplish His settled purposes.

We need to have zeal in the work of the Lord, but salvation does not come to people based upon our zeal or even based upon their own zeal. Many Jews had a zeal for God, as Paul himself once had. That zeal did not cause him to hear the Word of grace and to believe, but to hate the message of salvation through a Substitute. Zeal in what is wrong and unproductive is not a virtue. The problem was that so many Jews were doing what people everywhere are always tempted to do: rather than embracing a righteousness outside of themselves as their only answer, they were attempting to secure good standing with God based on their own righteousness according to their own obedience to their particular mixture of sacred tradition and divine Law. Their dedication to that way of trying to secure their peace caused them to reject God's only provision for us in Christ.

Christ is our righteousness. In His obedience we have the end of the Old Covenant Law as a way of life for Israel. The Law was a works-like arrangement for the nation of Israel. That arrangement continued for a time within God's prior system of grace-based salvation announced to us as His promise. The blessings of Law can only come from fully obeying that Law. Where is our hope under that kind of system? Yet even within the covenant documents of the Law, Moses spoke of a righteousness that came by faith. The way of life that is through faith comes to us through believing in the heart and professing with the lips. Faith is that trust in Another who alone can accomplish the securing of our heavenly citizenship. Now Christ, the Word, has come near to us in the preaching of grace through the Word of the gospel. Christ is proclaimed, and in that Word, God has come near to us and saved us. Because of the divine power of the Word preached through fallible human messengers, we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, and we believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead. This is the way that God has chosen to work out His electing purposes.

This is the same way for everyone: 1. true faith in Christ, and 2. profession of that faith by which people are brought into the communion of those who believe. There is not some different way for Jews. Everyone comes through the gate of Christ. Long ago, God had announced through the Old Testament prophet Joel a very important word of encouragement: "All who call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved." This calling upon the Name of the Lord has always been a true engagement of worship within the covenant assembly of the Lord's people.

God not only ordains the end, our salvation, He also has given us the way to that end, and that way involves the words and lives of God's people. Paul is presenting God’s normal way of bringing spiritual life to people. People need to call upon the Lord. To call upon Him in true worship together with the church, they need to believe in Him. To believe in Him, of course they need to hear about Him. To hear about Jesus, His message has to be preached to them. If preachers are going to preach, then they need to be sent out by the church as dedicated servants of the Lord and of His message. This is the way for us. People need to hear the word of Christ through His ambassadors sent out by the church, so that faith can come by hearing, and life can come to people by the Spirit of God. This is the way for the sheep of God to hear the voice of Jesus Christ and live.

We should never imagine that the sovereign election of God is somehow at cross-purposes with the church's ministry of preaching Christ. The powerful electing love of God is the root of grace. The obedience of Christ and His cross and resurrection are the ground of grace. The Holy Spirit at work in the lives of God's beloved is the agent of grace. The preaching, hearing, believing, and professing of the truth of Christ is the way of grace. The obedience of faith is the fruit of grace. The resurrection kingdom of Jews and Gentiles in the land of perfect salvation is the glorious goal of grace. God will not be stopped in His plan of glory and love. He will even use the calling of the Gentiles to bring many Jews home, a fact that Paul will further explore in the next chapter.

Romans 9

The Apostle Paul cared deeply about the Israelites, the Jews; this despite the fact that many of those who had caused the most trouble for his ministry were not Gentiles but Jews. Of all people, Paul understood where they were coming from. He had been a Pharisaic Jew, and a persecutor of the church. He surely still considered himself to be a Jew when he wrote this important letter to the Christian church in Rome. He was, in fact, a Christian Jew, as so many were in the first century. He was a Jew who had come to see Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, and the Christian preaching of the kingdom of God and the resurrection age as the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures.

Those Hebrew Scriptures were also quite clear on God's relationship with Israel as His chosen people. The question had to be asked: "What went wrong? What happened to the Jews, since so many seemed to reject Jesus as the Messiah?" They had so many advantages, especially the Scriptures themselves, and, of course, it was from the Jews that the Messiah Jesus came, the One who Paul calls here "God over all." In answering this important question, Paul says, "It is not as though the Word of God has failed." Many people come to the conclusion that God has let them down, or that He has done something wrong. A loved one may have died tragically, despite earnest prayers. Has God's promise failed? To answer that question we have to be very careful on the matter of what God actually promised. There is no promise in the Bible that the people we pray for will continue to live this mortal life forever. We cannot rightly evaluate whether the promise of God has failed unless we look carefully at the content of the promise itself.

God did not promise that each and every individual descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would be a part of His eternal people Israel. God made many promises concerning Israel, but not everyone who was a part of natural Israel was also a part of the spiritual elect Israel. God never promised to save all of the former, only all of the latter. Just because Abraham is in a person's list of ancestors does not mean that that person is a son of Abraham in every sense of the word. Ishmael had Abraham as a father, but God announce in the Hebrew Scriptures that the promise was through Isaac, the child of Abraham and Sarah. In the next generation, the same point was lived out. Rebecca, the wife of Isaac, was carrying twins, of which only one was the chosen child, Jacob. The other, Esau, the father of the Edomites, was not elect.

This sovereignty of God in salvation is ultimately necessary if grace is to be fully grace. If the key turning point and power of salvation springs first from the wisdom, power, and goodness of man, then salvation must in some sense be by the works of man and for the glory of man. But this is not what the Scriptures teach. Concerning faith, Jesus is the Author and Finisher of it, and we are explicitly told that it is the gift of God. If we have works to do, it is only because God prepared these things in advance that we should walk in them. There is simply no ground for human boasting on the matter of our salvation. Though so many people resist the plain teaching of the Bible on this, the One that we call Almighty is Almighty, even in the matters of faith, obedience, and eternal life. This is not even a close call when it comes to the evidence in the Bible. Salvation is of God, not of man. All mankind are by nature objects of God's hate, His wrath, and not His love. It is not surprising that God would say, "Esau I hated," as He does in Malachi. What is surprising is that He would be able to say in the same place, "Jacob I loved." This could only be done at the cost of His Son.

The enemies of the clear Biblical teaching of election commonly bring up certain objections. It is part of the proof that Romans 9 teaches sovereign election that Paul anticipates these very objections that are so often raised against those who teach that God chose some to everlasting life, and that others He created for a different purpose. What are these objections? 1. "Is there injustice on God's part?" 2. "Why does He still find fault? For who can resist his will?" 3. Anticipating the plea of those who have not been saved trying to blame God for their just condemnation, "Why have you made me like this?"

Paul's answers to these presumptuous and arrogant questions affirm the greatness and glory of God, and reject the notion that any of us have the right to set ourselves above the Lord as His judge, an act of intolerable pride on the part of any creature. He is the potter, and we are the clay. He has apparently set up this world in the only way that would be right, the way that brings the greatest glory to the greatest Being, Him, the only wise God. That way involves not only the most supreme display of His mercy, but also the most supreme display of His justice. Both of these require not only blessing, but also curse. You cannot have mercy without just moral guilt and curse from which to be rescued. You also cannot have justice without responsible moral guilt and a just penalty for that guilt. If that makes us wonder, and figure that this just can't be the true story of God, we are referred back again to the fact that God is far greater than we are.

God is not unjust. He has determined to have mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and it was His eternal choice to form the full Israel of God not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. This plan was according to His purpose of election, and it was amply testified to in the Hebrew Scriptures. This He has done through the provision of a righteousness that has come to us through faith in a Substitute who died for our sins. This Substitute is the Stone of stumbling and the Rock of offense to some. But those who have been granted the gift of faith boast not in themselves or their own understanding of the deep mysteries of God that are beyond our understanding. We do boast in something. We boast in the God who chose us from before the foundation of the world, and in Christ, who is God over all become man to perform the necessary activities of dying love for the beloved of God, and in the Spirit of God by which we have been made alive from the dead. And we most joyfully confess the truth: that our salvation "depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy."

Prayer based on Leviticus 24

O God, there is such misery among us as we wait for the return of Your Son. We are privileged to participate in Your church. It is a lampstand for the light of the world. We even eat the bread from heaven as we feast upon Christ in Word, sacrament, and prayer. Nonetheless, we sin, and our children sin, and we cannot be satisfied with our disobedience and blasphemy. We need to have sin removed far away from us forever. We need mercy, for we disobey You every day. Help us, O Lord. Grant us secret joys and peace, for there is much all around us that weighs us down in this world of sin and death. We need hope again this day.

Prayer based on Ezekiel 5

O Father, how can we dwell in Your presence? You demand righteousness, and there is much testimony that confirms that You are uncompromising concerning Your holy Law. Your people of old rejected Your statutes. They did not even act as well as the nations all around them who did not know You. The depth of the sin of Your people was obvious, and You withdrew from them. So many died. Your anger came upon them. Are we any better in Your church? Do we imagine that You now have no call to us, no claim upon our lives? Thank You for the cross and resurrection of Your Son, which is our hope. May we not forget the life we have been called to live.

Romans 8

Our observation of life and history and our own experience with suffering supplies us with many situations where we would rightly say, "This can't be God's final answer." In the first eight chapters of this book, the Apostle has been unfolding before us a wonderful theological tapestry; an intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually satisfying explanation to the story of God and life. That story comes to something of a delightful crescendo in Romans 8. We get a sense of that immediately with the opening words: "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." The first three chapters of this letter told us the truth of the universal guilt of mankind, both Jew and Gentile. We needed to hear of some way consistent with the glory of God that we could somehow be found to have no condemnation before God. The great plan of the Almighty in Jesus Christ has provided us with this way.

The way did not come to us through the Law or through our nature. The holiness of God and the depravity of man could only yield a just sentence of condemnation upon us. We needed help from outside ourselves in order to have a new and secure life before us. That help has come from the Spirit of life sent forth from on high. In Christ Jesus we have been freed, and the Holy Spirit testifies to our spirits concerning this and much more. We needed victory over our sinful flesh nature in the face of the righteous Law of God. That victory has been granted to us through the actions of Christ, and we have come to experience this victory ourselves through the work of the Spirit of Christ. Instead of our eternal condemnation, only our sinful flesh nature has been condemned, and a new spirit righteousness nature has come to life, so much so that we are setting our minds on the things of the Spirit and walking in obedience to God according to that same Spirit.

Not only that, we can now actually please God in a way that was impossible before, since "those who are in the flesh cannot please God." But now the Spirit of God dwells within those who truly belong to Jesus Christ, our own spirits have been brought to life, and God will eventually give life to our mortal bodies. We have a great debt as a result of the gift that was given to us, but it is certainly not a debt to our sinful flesh nature or even to the Law. Our debt is to Jesus, who took the weight of our sin upon Himself on the cross. There is no way to pay that debt, but we do the most honorable thing that we can do in that regard when we walk in the way of new life.

What is this way of life? Jesus told His disciples that it was a life of cross love, and that this was the only way to follow Him. Here Paul says that it is life of being led by the Spirit, and a life of being sons of God. These are not three different lives, but one life. We who have been adopted by God have been granted that spirit of sonship; and it is through the leading of that Spirit that we are enabled to pick up the cross as followers of Jesus. This is a pathway that leads to the blessing of the promises of God in the fullness of glory, though we are led through the valley of the shadow of death now. That glory life is so great that every sacrifice we need to make for Jesus now is well worth it, and our suffering is even working for us and not against us, yielding a great weight of heavenly gold in due time.

This does require some patience, but the day will come when the faith will be sight. We will see a world of sinless glory in the presence of Jesus. We will see that world descend upon the earth, working the most profound and beautiful renewal upon the world that we know now. This present world is groaning under the weight of decay at the present time as a result of the sin of man and the judgment of God. But the day of new birth will come, not only in our hearts, which we experience now, but in the world all around us when the King of glory comes again from a place where there is no decay. Therefore we wait patiently for this hope, which has been promised to us by God, who does not lie.

Until that day we have many encouragements. We have the Spirit of God helping us in our weakness, particularly in prayer. We have the truth of the eternal love of God proclaimed to us in the Word. We have the promise of God assuring us that even our suffering is not random, but purposeful, and ultimately for our eternal good, and we have the assurance that the Judge of men is the same Man who Himself suffered and died for us. There is an unbreakable golden chain binding us to God and His love for us in Christ. That chain began in eternity past, winding its way through the central events of salvation history, keeping us secure in God through this present evil age as we serve Him here, and continuing on all the way through the present heavens and into the fulfillment of the resurrection age to come.

Particularly when we consider the cost of our salvation to the Father in the death of His perfect Son, we are persuaded that God loves us, and that He will never let us go. Though hell would assault and accuse, heaven and heaven's God will never allow us to be snatched from the embrace of our Husband and Redeemer. With this confidence, it is ours to boldly serve Him. Even if He seems to slay us, He is still entirely to be trusted. One day we will be openly acknowledged as more than acquitted by the One who says to us even now, "I have loved you with an everlasting love."

Romans 7

The seventh commandment says, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Simply stated, this is the law of God concerning marriage. If we were to put more words of explanation together on this matter, we might say something like this: "Marriage is a binding lifelong covenant commitment between a man and a woman. It is the only possible moral relationship for the enjoyment of one-flesh intimacy. Aside from the death of one of the parties, there is no way out of a marriage covenant without serious sin and significant consequences." If a man is still alive, and his wife lives with another man, she is counted as an adulteress. She has violated the seventh commandment. This is the law of marriage. But if her husband dies, she is freed from her covenant commitment, and can marry again without being considered immoral. The law is binding upon them as a married couple only as long as they both live.

Israel was married to the old system of the Law. But now, in the death of Christ, something has happened. The Law has died as a covenantal arrangement. The people of God are free to be united with another husband, the Son God, Jesus Christ. We belong to Him. We are to bear fruit for God through our new husband, our resurrected Savior. This contrast between the two husbands is worthy of our consideration. We cannot speak against our first husband, the Law, but that covenantal system could not bring forth the fruit of life for us. Our new Husband is very fruitful, and we are bearing good fruit in our association with Him. God has told us to be fruitful and multiply. Now, in Christ, we are bearing fruit that will last for eternal life.

The Law is a very interesting system. It cannot be criticized, yet it cannot bring life. Like sin, it can be said to hold us captive, but sin is evil, while the Law is not evil at all. Despite all of the perfection of the Law, it only brings to us a knowledge of our fault, and we are undone by it. The Law speaks to me in words that cannot be criticized. It says, "Thou shalt not covet." Now I have an intimate awareness of what covetousness is, because the sin nature of my flesh rises up within me when I hear the Law, and I give birth to transgression, which has no place in the world of eternal blessing.

Before the system of the written Law came through Moses, Israel was alive in the promise of God. That promise did not go away when the Law came through Moses, but it was somewhat obscured by the mounting awareness of sin that came through the written commandment. The commandment promised life upon the condition of obedience, but it could not defeat the sin nature within the covenant people. That sin nature seized upon the commandment as an opportunity to bring forth the fruit of unrighteousness and death within the life of Israel, and the people were undone. The Law proved to be a burden that our fathers could not bear; not that the Law can be charged with the fault of the law-breaker. It was the sin within the people of God that brought forth death. Sin used the Law for its own destructive purposes, and it did so with great and deadly effect.

But the promise of God did not die. God had a purpose in the Law. Sin did increase, and the slavery of sin was all the more obvious. No matter how much Old Testament Israel under the Law applauded the Law with her mind, sin within her was a mighty enemy. She could never have found life through the Law, because in a contest between a mind that applauds the Law and the flesh that rejoices in evil, the flesh would always eventually win. This was the case for Old Testament Israel as a covenant people, and it is the case in any individual even now. We need a much stronger help than our mind applauding what is right. We need Christ by His Spirit at work within us, putting to death the enemy of the flesh.

It is not enough that we agree with the Law that it is good. We need power from on high to do what God loves. This power does not come from the Law, but from Christ, from the gospel of the cross and the resurrection, and from the Spirit of Christ at work within the church. Without these powerful allies we will only continue to do what we hate. Without these great and victorious warriors battling on our behalf, our existence will only be wretched. We may agree with the Law that it is good, but we will still be enslaved to sin. This flesh is still a continuing trouble for the true believer, but thanks be to God, Christ Jesus our Lord is at work within us, and through Him we have the victory.

Let there be no doubt within the church that this strong Savior, the Husband of His people, lives forever. His cross has dealt a decisive blow in this great battle for resurrection glory, and He will certainly deliver His people from this body of death that continues to give us a palpable struggle within every individual and within the body of Christ as a whole spiritual community. Though we feel the wretchedness of the warfare in and around us now, the victory of our great Husband is a certain reality that encourages and empowers us in the service of our Lord.