Rom 8.12-17

Psg: Rom 8.12-17 (http://biblia.com/bible/leb/Ro8.12-17)
Date: 7/10/12

Read

12 So then, brothers, we are obligated not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you are going to die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba!cFather!” 16 The Spirit himself confirms to our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer together with him so that we may also be glorified together with him.

Record

For if you live according to … the Spirit / if indeed we suffer together with him...

Reflect

• Walking by the Spirit in this world will lead to suffering, because we will be walking at odds with this world.
• Of course, living according to the flesh leads to death. It will be slavery and then a death that are not at odds with this world, as if that were some consolation.
• The direction that the Spirit will lead us will necessarily be at odds with this world. They are two forces of momentum going in different directions.
• Otherwise, we wouldn’t need the leading of the Spirit.
• Therefore, there will be clashes, collisions, forces being applied in the same place at the same time, but not in the same direction.
• And therefore there will be suffering with Christ.
• We should not be surprised or discouraged at the suffering, the collisions, the feelings of going against the grain, or the bumps and bruises it causes.
• This is part of what it means to be sons/children of God.
• It’s not just being in the group, but it’s being in the stream that moves contrary to flow of this world and the suffering that comes with that.
• Being children of God also means being heirs (17) and therefore sharing in his glory (17).

Respond

• Forgive me, Father, for my desire to avoid the necessary suffering that comes with walking by the Spirit in a world that walks by the flesh. Correct me for the ways that I turn to walk by the flesh rather than take the bruises of walking against the grain, against the flow of the dead. Living up to the name of an heir and sharing in Christ’s glory is far superior to the discomfort of sharing in Christ’s suffering.
• CR: When facing the temptation to follow the bruiseless flow, picture being in a crowded area with two flows of people - the larger flow walking toward death and the smaller flow walking toward life. Be willing to take the knocks of the living.

Rom 8.31-39

Psg: Rom 8.31-39 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Ro8.31-39)
Date: 6/16/12

Read

8:31 What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 8:32 Indeed, he who* did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things? 8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?* It is God who justifies. 8:34 Who is the one who will condemn? Christ* is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us. 8:35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?* 8:36 As it is written, “For your sake we encounter death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”* 8:37No, in all these things we have complete victory*through him* who loved us! 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers,* nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Record

In all these things (trouble, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword) we have complete victory through him who loved us (37).

Reflect

• “complete victory”
• NET 40 tn BDAG 1034 s.v. ὑπερνικάω states, “as a heightened form ofνικᾶν prevail completely ὑπερνικῶμεν we are winning a most glorious victory Ro 8:37.”
• NASB: “overwhelmingly conquer”
• It doesn’t say, “in spite of all these things” but “in (ἐν) all these things.”
• None of these things can separate us from his love (38-39).
• More than that, we have overwhelming victory in them.
• How is this true?
• v. 36 suggests that these sufferings (which are specifically on account of the Gospel) are the means for Kingdom victory.
• If true, then it’s not just suffering and trouble, but what we suffer living for Christ, because it is only by this suffering that the Kingdom agenda is advanced through us.
• None of these things will separate us from God’s love and his purpose of completely conforming us to the image of Christ (29).

Respond

• Lord, I sometimes complain to you for the suffering that comes my way because I’m serving you. When I do so, I am completely self-contradicting. You have given me the privilege of suffering for your sake. Let me count it as all joy, but also to see it as complete victory.

Rom 14.5-13

Psg: Rom 14.5-13 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Ro14.5-13)
Date: 4/29/12

Read

14:5 One person regards one day holier than other days, and another regards them all alike.* Each must be fully convinced in his own mind. 14:6 The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. The* one who eats, eats for the Lord because he gives thanks to God, and the one who abstains from eating abstains for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God. 14:7 For none of us lives for himself and none dies for himself. 14:8 If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. 14:9 For this reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he may be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

14:10 But you who eat vegetables only – why do you judge your brother or sister?* And you who eat everything – why do you despise your brother or sister?* For we will all stand before the judgment seat* of God. 14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will give praise to God.”* 14:12 Therefore, each of us will give an account of himself to God.*

14:13 Therefore we must not pass judgment on one another, but rather determine never to place an obstacle or a trap before a brother or sister.*

Record

Don’t pass judgment on others, because we will all be judged. Rather, everything we do or choose not to do (especially the things that tend to be judged) should be done or not done for the Lord, so that he is Lord of everything.

Reflect

• The things we do (or choose not to do) are for one judge only - the Lord. We have no need to seek the approval of others (which is not the same thing as accountability).
• When dealing with a brother over an issue that we’re tempted to judge, our goal with them should not be whether or not they engage in the behavior, but is their behavior something they are earnestly doing for the Lord. How can we spur one another on to do or to abstain only for the Lord?
• There are, of course, clear times when people are in sin. Paul is not making room for that here. God is the judge, and he will rightly assess all behaviors and thoughts.

Respond

• Father, I do sometimes take your place and judge others. When I do, I am certainly worthy of your judgment, whether or not the other person is. I confess to you acts of judging.
• Make me a positive agent in others’ lives to encourage them to do everything for you - to live for you and to die for you, and everything in between.

Rom 6.1-14

Psg: Rom 6.1-14 (http://biblia.com/bible/gs-netbible/Ro6.1-14)
Date: 4/21/12

Read

6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to remain in sin so that grace may increase? 6:2 Absolutely not! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 6:3 Or do you not know that as many as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 6:4Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life.*

6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection.* 6:6 We know that* our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us,* so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 6:7 (For someone who has died has been freed from sin.)*

6:8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 6:9 We know* that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die* again; death no longer has mastery over him. 6:10 For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. 6:11 So you too consider yourselves* dead to sin, but* alive to God in Christ Jesus.

6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its desires, 6:13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments* to be used for unrighteousness,* but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments* to be used for righteousness. 6:14 For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace.

Record

"The body of sin would no longer dominate us" (6)
"We would no longer be enslaved to sin" (6)
"Death no longer has mastery over us" (9)

Reflect

• We have this attitude that sin still has mastery over us. It's not true.
• It is true that everything we are and everything we do will be stained with sin and impurity.
• It is also true that we cannot achieve sinlessness.
• But sin and death do not rule over me. I don't have to sin against my will. I can always choose obedience, unlike the unsaved.
• How is this true? How do I have options that the unsaved do not when it comes to sin? Can't the unsaved choose to no murder, not lie, etc.?
• The HS is inside of us, constantly influencing us toward Christlikeness. Rom 8 is coming up!
• He who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.
• The break of the power of sin and death are also positional truths. God will do his part. This passage says, "This is true about you. Therefore, don't go on with the old actions." It acknowledges that we can still sin, but it shows how incongruous and counterproductive it is.
• How do I take advantage of this?
• Believing that the HS is doing his work, look for it, yield to it out of obedience (AOT personal power to be good, which is all the unsaved have).
• It's a mortification of the personal will. I will experience more of the resurrection life the more I die to self.
• There is no resurrection without death.
• If I want to experience the goodness of the resurrection in a given area of my life, there must also be a death in that part of my life.

Respond

• Father, my will is strong. It is by no means too strong for you, but you allow this will to have its way to some extent. You have a much better life for me than this, free for the taking, through taking up my cross following your Son. You have resurrection life in abundance for me - if I would merely yield my stubborn will in complete obedience.
• Intercessory: Open X's eyes to see how much more bountiful is the resurrection life that you offer.