Bible League: Living His Word I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind.— Romans 7:22-23 NLT There's a lie circulating around church culture. This lie takes today's verse out of context, suggesting that there's no hope to overcome the sinful nature, so there is no reason to try. If that's the case, then one might continually give into sin, believing, "If God just forgives me anyway, then I can ask forgiveness after I participate in it." Yet Paul goes on to explain that the person who will free him from a life dominated by sin is Jesus Christ (Romans 7:24-25). The root issue of how one is deceived into engaging in sin is that it begins in the mind (Romans 8:5-6). If your mind is controlled by your sinful nature, you cannot please God (Romans 8:6,8)! However, the hope of the matter is that you are not controlled by your sinful nature when you are in Christ. Although your body will die because of sin, your spirit is alive because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you (Romans 8:9-11). Christian, you won't robotically do what you hate to do when you realize that you have no obligation whatsoever to obey your sinful nature (Romans 8:12). Regarding sin, the sobering reality of the hyper-grace false gospel is this: "For if you keep on following it, you will perish. But if through the power of the Holy Spirit, you turn from it and its evil deeds, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of the God are children of God" (Romans 8:13-14). "So, you should not be like cowering, fearful slaves. You should behave instead like God's very own children, adopted into his family—calling him "Father, dear Father" (Romans 8:15). Good behavior gratefully follows free righteousness. Celebrate the mighty power of the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. The next time the seed of rebellion is presented in your thoughts, take it captive to obey Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). Hope Himself is alive and well, living within you. By Jenny Laux, Bible League International contributor, Wisconsin USA Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingIsaiah 43, 44 Isaiah 43 -- Israel Redeemed; God's Mercy; Israel's Unfaithfulness NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Isaiah 44 -- God's Blessings upon Israel; The Foolishness of Idolatry; God's Will for Jerusalem's Inhabitation NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Colossians 2 Colossians 2 -- The Fullness of God Dwells in Christ and Gives Us Freedom NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant.Insight Do you spend your life trying to please everybody? Paul had to speak harshly to the Christians in Galatia because they were in serious danger. He did not apologize for his straight-forward words, knowing that he could serve Christ faithfully if he allowed the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track. Challenge Whose approval are you seeking—others' or God's? Pray for the courage to seek God's approval above anyone else's. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Jude 1:24 Faultless before the presence of his glory.Revolve in your mind that wondrous word, "faultless!" We are far off from it now; but as our Lord never stops short of perfection in his work of love, we shall reach it one day. The Saviour who will keep his people to the end, will also present them at last to himself, as "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but holy and without blemish." All the jewels in the Saviour's crown are of the first water and without a single flaw. All the maids of honor who attend the Lamb's wife are pure virgins without spot or stain. But how will Jesus make us faultless? He will wash us from our sins in his own blood until we are white and fair as God's purest angel; and we shall be clothed in his righteousness, that righteousness which makes the saint who wears it positively faultless; yea, perfect in the sight of God. We shall be unblameable and unreproveable even in his eyes. His law will not only have no charge against us, but it will be magnified in us. Moreover, the work of the Holy Spirit within us will be altogether complete. He will make us so perfectly holy, that we shall have no lingering tendency to sin. Judgment, memory, will--every power and passion shall be emancipated from the thraldom of evil. We shall be holy even as God is holy, and in his presence we shall dwell forever. Saints will not be out of place in heaven, their beauty will be as great as that of the place prepared for them. Oh the rapture of that hour when the everlasting doors shall be lifted up, and we, being made meet for the inheritance, shall dwell with the saints in light. Sin gone, Satan shut out, temptation past forever, and ourselves "faultless" before God, this will be heaven indeed! Let us be joyful now as we rehearse the song of eternal praise so soon to roll forth in full chorus from all the blood-washed host; let us copy David's exultings before the ark as a prelude to our ecstasies before the throne. Daily Light on the Daily Path Ephesians 3:15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,Ephesians 4:6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. Galatians 3:26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1:10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him Hebrews 2:11 For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Matthew 12:49,50 And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, "Behold My mother and My brothers! • "For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother." John 20:17 Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'" Revelation 6:9-11 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; • and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" • And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. Hebrews 11:40 because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they would not be made perfect. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |
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