Thought for the Week 2020 – Advent 1

Isaiah 7: 10 - 17

¹⁰ Again the Lord spoke to [King] Ahaz, ¹¹ ‘Ask the Lord your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.’

¹² But Ahaz said, ‘I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.’

¹³ Then Isaiah said, ‘Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. ¹⁵ He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, ¹⁶ for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. ¹⁷ The Lord will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah – he will bring the king of Assyria.’

 

Advent 1 – Time is in the Lord’s Hands.

Advent is the season in which look ahead and we wait upon the Lord. We look ahead to the coming of the Messiah – remembering the first time he came and in expectation of the second time he will come. In the Bible Course, which some of us have been studying recently, we have just come to the end of the Old Testament. It is the period in which prophets such as Malachi set the scene, and whose words were left hanging in expectation for about 400 years.

Isaiah wrote the words that we have read today, roughly 700 years before Jesus came. These are long periods of time! In the case of Isaiah, it is as if we were reading a book today that is even older than Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (written between 1387 and 1400), and spotting and interpreting a prophecy about the covid-19 crisis! And the gap after Malachi is similar to the time that has passed since the publication of the King James Bible. It was a long time in which there was silence – no prophets, and no word from God.

The people of God were waiting for the fulfilment of prophecy – they were waiting for the coming Messiah, and they waited a very long time. And finally, by the time the Angel Gabriel visited Zechariah the priest in the temple, and then, six months later, a teenage peasant girl called Mary in Nazareth, the people were longing and desperate to see God do something in order to restore the nation, and get rid of the hated Romans.

It is fair to say that some of the prophecies in the Old Testament that we recognise as being about Jesus are only recognisable because we have that wonderful gift called hindsight! Also, the fact that some of the New Testament writers quoted the relevant passages gives us a huge pointer! At the time Isaiah wrote chapter 7 (and during the 700 years that followed) it is likely that few people would have realised that right in the middle of it we find a prophecy that the Messiah would be born to a virgin. But there it is, in verse 14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” And this verse was quoted by Matthew in Matt. 1: 23 – a verse that we hear read every single year in Carol services.

When Isaiah wrote chapter 7 of his book, he was writing about Middle East politics of the day. Power struggles can change very quickly, as we know. Ahaz, the king of Judah, was fearful about possible attacks from Israel and from Aram. And the Prophet Isaiah says here, bringing the Word of God, that Ahaz could stop worrying, because within the next couple of years both of those lands would be laid waste by a much bigger player – Assyria. And the ‘sign’ was the length of time it takes for a baby to be conceived, born, grow old enough to eat curds and honey, but not be old enough to be able to choose right from wrong. How long is that? A couple of years?

So the theme for this week’s reading is ‘time’. There are the centuries that passed as people waited for the Messiah, and there is the very short time (measured in the period of a baby’s early stages) in which whole nations and empires can rise and fall! How long is God’s time? We have waited nearly 2000 years for Jesus to return and we are still waiting. Meanwhile, we have waited a few months for the development of a covid-19 vaccine. Through it all we trust in God. We trust in the King of kings – and we have no alternative, because who else is there that we can we turn to? God sees the big picture, and sometimes it seems to us that things happen too quickly; and often it seems that we have to wait a very long time. We have limited vision – the length of a day, a year, even a lifetime. But God has the whole of world history in his view, and indeed, in his hands. It can sometimes be difficult to be patient and it can be difficult to trust God, but he is utterly faithful, and we need to learn to rest in his goodness, rest in his peace and rest in his timing, knowing that he knows best and he sees the end from the beginning.

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, this Advent may we have peace in our hearts as we wait on the Lord. We wait for the Saviour to be revealed in our lives, in our church and in our world. We thank you for the Good News of the Saviour who was born in Bethlehem – at just the right time, even 700 years after the words of Isaiah, and over 400 years after Malachi. May we hold on to the hope and expectation of seeing Jesus come again: we wait with eager anticipation! Please bless us during this Advent season – very different from previous years, but the truth and relevance of the birth of our Saviour remain unchanged. Amen.

Advent - Psalm 27

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation –
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life –
    of whom shall I be afraid?

² When the wicked advance against me
    to devour me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
³ Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

⁴ One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord
    and to seek him in his temple.
⁵ For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

⁶ Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

⁷ Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.

⁸ My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
⁹ Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Saviour.
¹⁰ Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
¹¹ Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
¹² Do not hand me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

¹³ I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

Wait for the Lord.

This Sunday is Advent Sunday. It is the beginning of four weeks that lead up to Christmas. And during Advent we prepare our hearts as we wait for the coming of the Saviour.

Psalm 27 is a wonderful, peaceful, meditative piece of Scripture that reminds us that we are to wait on God. The last verse summarises the theme of the Psalm: ‘Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.’ Waiting is not expected to be easy, according to the psalmist. First – we wait for the Lord. Second – we must be strong, and third – we must take heart. Yes. It is not to do with lying back on the sofa, drinking a cup of tea and watching the telly while you wait for the children to come home from school (As if any of us would behave like that!).

No, as we wait we must be strong; we must take heart. And then what? Then we wait for the Lord. Be vigilant, be watchful, be attentive, listening for his voice. During this global pandemic which has completely turned our lives upside down, and affected everyone in the world, we know that we must wait for the Lord. There is no alternative – we must wait on him and trust in him alone.

Day by day we want to hear his voice and go his way. The first three verses of Psalm 27 talk about being in a dangerous situation but trusting in the Lord for safety and protection. ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?’ Who indeed? If we really trust in God and rest in him, and if we are really followers of Jesus, then we can join the psalmist in these words of confidence. Yes, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Is he? We should pause and ask ourselves that kind of question from time to time. Just to check; just to confirm that yes, we really do still trust in the Lord. The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Is he? Ask it and check. And if it remains true that yes, the Lord is my light and my salvation, and he is my stronghold, then whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid?

Yesterday we read this wonderful verse in Romans 8: 31 – ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ Who indeed? Verse 3 of this Psalm says a similar thing: ‘Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.’

May we come into this Advent season trusting in the Lord, and waiting for him and waiting on him. May we wait in peace, knowing that God is always with us and that he will never let us go. He if faithful and just, and remembers all his promises to us.

 

Prayer

Father, please help us as we wait on you to always trust and never fear. We pray for an end to the spread of covid-19, and we pray that in all things we will be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord. Amen.

Romans 8: 28 - 39

28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

‘For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Who Can be Against Us?

Today we come to the end of our readings in the first eight chapters of Romans, and you could say that we have reached a climax. Certainly there are more well-known and remembered sayings in these twelve verses than in any of the previous passages we have covered. And I would say that this whole section is definitely worth memorising as an encouragement!

Verse 28 tells us that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. It doesn’t mean that everything in life will have a happy ending, nor even that every cloud has a silver lining. Nevertheless, God is always on our side, and he always has our best interests at heart, and he is working for us. In this covid-19 pandemic there is good that comes out of it and good that will come out of it. God hasn’t left us or abandoned us. It is worth pausing and spending time thinking about how God has been blessing us individually, as a church and as a nation over the last nine months.

Verse 31 – ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ This is so encouraging when facing difficulties or opposition or persecution. It doesn’t matter who or what is against us, because God is always for us. Always.

Verse 35 – ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?’ No, none of those things shall separate us from the love of Christ, nor will a global pandemic. The love of Christ is strong and steadfast; he is unchanging and always faithful.

This whole passage reminds us that no matter what happens in our lives or in our community or in the world, God never lets us down. He is always on our side, he never lets us go, and he is perfectly and eternally faithful. Nothing can change that – nothing can separate us from God.

‘In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.’ (v. 37). No matter what comes against us, we can defeat it in Christ, because he is always with us, always strengthening and blessing us. Not that trouble doesn’t come – but in Christ we are on the victory side!

‘For I am convinced that neither lockdown nor face masks, neither firebreaks nor social distancing, neither the virus nor the vaccine, nor any covid-deniers, neither a persistent cough nor a high temperature, nor a loss or change in taste or smell, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.’

 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I thank you that you are perfectly faithful. I thank you that there is nothing in my life or in the world that is strong enough to separate me from your love. Your love is eternal and unchanging, and I rejoice in it! Amen.

Romans 8: 18 - 27

18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹ that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

²² We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³ Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Groaning.

Decay is everywhere, and it can be quite depressing if you think about it too much. Look at the rotting leaves on the ground at this time of year. Build a wooden fence in the garden, and the wood will need some kind of preservative on it to extend its life. But not just once – it needs doing regularly, otherwise the wood will just rot away in the rain.

Way back on the 8^th Oct we looked at the consequences of sin in Genesis 3. Because Adam and Eve sinned, there was a curse on them, and on the snake and on the whole of creation. It is this curse that Paul is referring to in today’s reading – ‘creation was subjected to frustration’ (v. 20), ‘bondage to decay’ (v. 21), ‘the whole creation has been groaning’ (v. 22)

When Jesus returns, he will make all things new. We will be given new, resurrection bodies, and the whole of creation will be renewed – no longer groaning, no longer decaying, but made new like it was in the Garden of Eden before sin came into the world! It’s a world of perfection that we long for. The creation itself waits in eager expectation for that day, and so should we.

In the opening verse of our reading, Paul writes, ‘I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.’ (v. 18) That’s quite a statement, when you consider how much Paul suffered for his faith! People reading this might be going through various degrees of suffering. But without wishing to belittle your sufferings, or gloss over them, we can rejoice in this statement that Paul makes – that no matter how bad your sufferings, they are simply not worth comparing with the glory that will come to us in Christ!

And finally we have more ‘groaning’. Not only is the whole of creation groaning, but we are groaning inwardly as we wait for our resurrection bodies that we will receive when Christ returns. Maybe your body creaks, and, like me, you make that ‘old person’ noise when you stand up! Let’s look ahead eagerly to the day when Jesus will come again. And also, in verses 26 and 27, Paul talks about a different kind of groaning. This is groaning in prayer, when we cannot put our prayers into words. We want to call out to God but we simply can’t find the words to say. Maybe you have known this experience – the thing we want to pray about is beyond words for us. And when this happens, the Holy Spirit himself prays on our behalf. He ‘intercedes for us through wordless groans.’

 

Prayer

Lord, we join with all creation in looking forward to that glorious day of re-creation when Jesus come again. There are times when our heart longs for you in prayer, and we cannot find the words to cry out. Thank you that the Holy Spirit will always intercede for us in prayer. Amen.

Romans 8: 1 - 17

1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. ³ For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, ⁴ in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

⁵ Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ⁶ The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. ⁷ The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. ¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

¹² Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation – but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

¹⁴ For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. ¹⁵ The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. ¹⁷ Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

No Condemnation.

In the last part of Romans 7, Paul described the difficult human situation of wanting to do good, but finding oneself doing evil instead. He pleaded – who will rescue me? And back came the answer, ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ (Rom. 7: 25)

Now, chapter 8 begins with ‘Therefore’: meaning that even though we can find ourselves in a struggle with the sinful nature, God delivers us through Christ. So it follows that ‘there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.’ (v. 1 and 2)

Romans 8: 1 is a well-known and well-loved verse that is important when we find we are struggling to forgive ourselves for something in the past, or we are racked by shame and guilt. If you are in Christ, then there really is no condemnation for you! God does not condemn you, and you should not condemn yourself, nor accept the condemnation of others.

In John 8, a woman caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, to see what he would do. The Teachers of the Law and Pharisees pointed out that the Law of Moses required that she should be stoned. And Jesus famously said, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Everyone went away, leaving just the woman and Jesus. And he said to her, ‘‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’

‘No one, sir,’ she said.

‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’

As believers, we are in a similar position to that woman. Jesus truly does not condemn us, and we need to believe that and rejoice in it! But also, he says to us all, ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’ And we must obey that command – Romans 8: 1 requires it, and the rest of this passage makes that point.

And in verses 14 to 17, Paul writes that as those led by the Spirit, we are now God’s children. We are heirs of God, and co-heirs with Christ. That is amazing news, and something that we should take time to think about and to explore. God promises that we inherit the gift of new life if we will put our trust in Christ. We are no longer slaves – now we are sons of God! Remember in the parable of the Prodigal Son, how the son wanted to be taken on by his father as a servant? But the father welcomed him back as a son! And the same is true for our Heavenly Father who welcomes us back!

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that in Christ there is now no condemnation for me, and I have the wonderful gift of new life and of being your son. No longer a slave to sin, but now an heir of God! Amen.

Romans 7: 13 - 26

13 Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. ¹⁵ I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. ¹⁶ And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷ As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. ¹⁸ For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹ So I find this law at work: although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³ but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Who Will Rescue Me?

Paul has been leading up to this explanation of the law and sin. The law is good, but through knowing it we are tempted to break it. At the end of Friday’s reading, Paul suggests that it seems that the more we know the law, the more we sin by breaking it! And now, in today’s reading, Paul paints a tragic picture, and one that we can all relate to. Even if this is not a permanent picture of what our lives are like, we have all known this experience at some time.

Paul says that what he really wants is to do good. He wants to do the right thing, and he wants to obey the law of God. But as an imperfect, sinful human being, he finds that sometimes the exact opposite occurs. He wants to do good, but fails to do so. He really doesn’t want to do bad or evil things, and yet finds that he is drawn to them and even does them. It might sound a bit strange – like a person who is controlled by some other ‘law’ inside them; but actually it is something we can all recognise in ourselves. We know the good things we should do – being kind and generous, showing love and helping others, spending time in prayer and reading the Bible and worshipping God. And yet, when it comes to it, we choose not to do those things. The temptation to do something else, and not to bother with the good things becomes overwhelming. Having started the day with good intentions and plans to do good things, by the end of the day we look back and realise that we hardly did any of it. Or maybe there is persistent sinful behaviour – selfishness and choosing wrong rather than right. We decide to definitely not do those things… and yet we still give in to temptation and do them.

I am not saying this is our story every day (if you are finding that it is, take time to talk it through with a Christian friend and pray together about it). But all of us can say, yes, at some time, that has been our story. And maybe we feel trapped in the wrong cycle – ‘who will rescue me?’ Paul asks that exact question in verse 24: ‘What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?’ And then, in the first half of verse 25, this glorious answer comes: ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’

If we follow Jesus, and trust in him, and are filled with the Holy Spirit, we can live, every day in his will. Yes, we will sometimes slip, and when we do we can come to him in confession and repentance and know we will be forgiven. But the important thing is that in the Spirit, the cycle of sin is broken and we are no longer in chains, slaves to sin, but now we have true freedom! Again – get in touch with me or another Christian friend if you feel this is not your experience at the moment.

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that I am no longer in chains. You have rescued me from slavery to sin. Thank you that the answer to our problem is in verse 25: ‘Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!’ Amen.

Romans 7: 1 - 12

1 Do you not know, brothers and sisters – for I am speaking to those who know the law – that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. ³ So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for death. ⁶ But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

⁷ What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet.’ ⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. ⁹ Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.

Alive in Christ, Bearing Fruit for God.

In Romans 7 we come to another of Paul’s arguments of logic concerning the law. When we became Christians, we died to the law, and we came alive in Christ. The illustration that Paul uses concerning marriage has troubled some people – and it is important to not look into it too deeply, nor use it as an allegory, but it doesn’t work that way. The important point is that a death took place, and that changed everything. Jesus, the Son of God, came to live for us, teaching us the truths of how we should live for God, and he died for us. Jesus died on the cross – the perfect man who had never sinned died a criminal’s death. And in doing so, he took our place and he paid for our sins. He averted the wrath of God from us and thereby restored our relationship with him. And when we trust in Jesus, our old sinful way of life is also put to death – the illustration has been used before that we died to sin. Or, to put it another way, the old sinful life was put to death by being nailed to the cross with Jesus.

And following that death, we can now live! We are brought into freedom – mainly freedom from sin and freedom from death. But was also might say freedom from the law, which is what Paul writes about here. Now, when we say we are free from the law, it doesn’t mean we are free from having to keep the law. The Ten Commandments still apply to us as much now as ever. But the difference is that under the old covenant, people were required to live under the law in order to be righteous before God. Now, in Christ, we have his righteousness, which has nothing to do with our keeping of the law. Rather, the righteousness of Christ that we have comes through faith in him, and through his death on the cross. And we now obey the law of God because we are saved – not the other way around.

‘So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.’ (v.4). What kind of fruit are you and I bearing for God? Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the Spirit, which is one kind of fruit. Jesus also talked about being fruitful in a different way in the parable of the sower. Are you full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control? Are you seeing fruit for the kingdom in people who are getting to meet Jesus through you? Are people seeing the fruit of good works in your life as you live for Christ and follow him?

 

Prayer

Lord, I thank you that through the death of Jesus, I can know life. I thank you that my old sinful life is put to death, and I am risen to new life in you. Please fill me with your Spirit, and help me to bear fruit for you. May I have opportunities to live for you in my interactions with other people, and may I see those opportunities and take them! Amen.