Category: Devotions

It is now over a month since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. However, it isn’t Russia as a nation who are being blamed but it is one man, Putin.

From one man has come such traumatic pain that it is hard to put into words what we are seeing and hearing.

I use this as a present-day illustration to show the damage a human being can make.

The Apostle Paul is using a historical and much greater illustration, that of one man/Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, comparing this influence with that of one man/Jesus Christ:

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many! Nor can the gift of God be compared with the result of one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification. For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5 v 15-17)

If so much damage came from the sin of one man/Adam then think of how much more impact and influence into the lives of people God has had through another man: Jesus Christ!

Sometimes we cannot help but dwell on the sin of the world and the destruction it brings. But “can you imagine the breath-taking recovery life makes, absolute life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?” (The Message) Let’s dwell on those words and know that God’s best met man’s worst in one man, Jesus Christ!

A question we have asked before and we get asked still today. What happens in terms of God’s judgment to those who have never heard the gospel? Paul is answering a similar question about those before the Law of Moses. I find it a difficult read in terms of its grammar but here it is:

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned— To be sure, sin was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not charged against anyone’s account where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who is a pattern of the one to come.” (Romans 5 v 12-14)

So if there is no Law then there can be no sin? So those before Moses, were they sinners? Yes says Paul.

He takes us back to the beginning. The Hebrew reader when hearing the name Adam is actually hearing “man” or “human being” because that is its meaning. It is helpful to them for from the first story of sin they see all have sinned, man died because of their sin, just as much as Adam the first man did.

The law that they broke before the Law (of Moses) was the eating from the tree of good and evil in the Garden of Eden.

The Law of Moses brought clarity to the extent and separation that sin brings from God. The Law was God stepping in to say look what man is doing, look how far short man has fallen and the resulting death and separation. The Law created an opportunity for change but it pointed to the change-maker. As did Paul dropping in the thought of Christ who Adam was a pattern of.

How would Christians live differently if they had complete assurance of their future? That there was no doubt whatsoever. God had already made up His mind about them and it was good news. Perhaps they would not feel the pressure to perform? Maybe their lives would be more peaceful and loving because of this knowledge that God had totally accepted them?

This is what the Apostle Paul is trying to deal with. He is writing about the hope that we have for our future state. He has said we can be sure because of the outpouring of the Spirit in our lives and the cross of Christ all demonstrating God’s love. But there’s more:

“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.” (Romans 5 v 9-11)

Look what God has done for you? He has declared you innocent/justified and has removed the barrier between you and Him/reconciled you.

If God can do the hard work of bringing His enemies into relationship with Him through the cross of Christ then surely He can do the easier task of bringing us home. Paul is convinced, we will be saved! We was saved (I was saved in 1974!), we are being saved (our daily life) and we will be saved at our death.

Let’s boast about this.

It seems a strange question that anyone with hope/absolute certainty could doubt. Well, it does happen, doesn’t it?! But of course the critics are never far away with these and other questions.

Paul answers the question in 2 ways.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5 v 5-8)

There it is. We know our hope will not be disappointed because of God’s love for us; seen in the activity of the Holy Spirit and the cross of Christ.

See that word ‘poured’? I wonder what Paul must have been thinking when he used it. Was it the great outpouring of Pentecost? Though Paul wasn’t a receiver on that day he certainly knew the Holy Spirit filling his life post-conversion and so do we. The Holy Spirit in your life is constantly reminding you of God’s love for you. “You are a child of God”; “You belong to Him”; “You are under His gaze”; “He will bring you home”; and your responses are filled with even more hope, “It is well, with my soul”. That’s our answer. This hope will not be disappointed because we are reminded inwardly by the Holy Spirit of the love of God.

Some might say to us well all that is subjective.

So our proof of God’s love is the cross of Christ. To die for a loving person is one thing but to die for someone who is a sinner is another. He died for you and me whilst we were not worshipping Him and with our backs turned against Him.

Subjective and objective proof that God’s love means our hope for the future will not be disappointed.

But there’s more …

Ever had a day when you think something is going to go wrong? It’s hard to describe but a disturbing feeling that just around the corner is your looming doom. Thankfully it doesn’t happen every day as I am an optimist on most days. But without Christ I don’t think I would be all that positive. Look what Christ does for each one of us: We have peace with God, access to God and now the Apostle writes, we also have a hope to live by.

And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (Romans 5 v 3-4)

We have joyful confidence in the absolute certainty that we have a future past our death.

This is how we live and it carries us around every corner and through every storm.

Even through suffering this hope/absolute confidence is growing more and more because we don’t give up in the difficult days and a resolve develops because of what lies ahead, our glorious eternal life. That’s how people survive their persecution and their heartaches in this life: He gives hope!

Paul is confident of the future for all believers; there is reconciliation/peace and so no looming judgment; and this is nothing of us but all of His grace. This future state seems to be in his mind in this section of his letter. But it is also for now:

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand (Romans 5 v 1-2)

We don’t just receive this act of grace for our future security but we live in it and live out of it; every day is a grace day.

U2 wrote a song called Grace and it finishes with these lyrics:

Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Grace finds beauty
In everything

Grace finds goodness in everything

Inspiringly challenging. To see God in a fallen yet created world; To see God in a manger; To see God on a cross; these are the starting points of finding and stepping into grace.

Whatever happens today from the moment you rise it is all because of His grace to look upon you, bless you, love you, favour you and He does that through every single thing around you.

The more you understand that every part of your physical world is both the place where God is revealing who He is and where He also hides to be searched for, then you will begin to understand what it is to have accessed by faith into this grace in which you now stand.

Standing before God as we all will do is not a fearful prospect for the follower of Jesus.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5 v 1

I have seen many leave this life with total confidence based not on their performance but because Christ/God in Jesus has already decided our fate.

The gospel is this: God removes the barrier of sin between us and Him and we are declared innocent by Him and for Him (we are justified). How? It is by the impact of the historical event of the cross and resurrection of Jesus in our lives.

We don’t wait for judgment day to find out the result. We live in this truth today, this is the peace with God that comes through our justification. There is no looming terrifying judgment for the follower of Jesus.

By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. Hebrews 11:9

Abraham lived in tents, he didn’t settle down.

We can become content with what we have and how far we have come.

The call of the Spirit for those who have even reached Canaan is to move on.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)

“For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” Hebrews 11:10.

Abraham lived 2,000 years before Christ and we live 2,000 years after Christ. Yet Abraham saw past us to see the same thing that John saw in Revelation 21 – a city coming down from heaven to earth – a God ordained world.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)

Because of that hope he was content to live in tents, looking for God’s fulfilment. He was believing for it to happen in his lifetime.

“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance… People who say such things show they are looking for a country of their own…they were longing for a better country – a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God.” Hebrews 11:13-16

Faith seizes on a revealed event in the future and lives in anticipation of it.

There is always more of God. The Holy Spirit pioneers with us to receive more of God on our way towards the heavenly home.

Only in heaven will we be able to say we’ve arrived. Until then keep pioneering.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4 v 18)

Paul’s use of the promise to Abraham in order to explain the power of faith in connection to our righteousness gives us the opportunity to savour this wonderful story of him and Sarah.

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. (Romans 4 v 18-23)

But this great covenant of our faith given to the father of many nations all happened in a vision and a dream.

After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision (Genesis 15 v 1)

As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep (Genesis 15 v 12)

Abram had a vision, he was awake, very much conscious but having an encounter with God that no one else was seeing or hearing. Then he had a deep sleep and dreamt something that was still counted as real.

Here is the point: Abraham’s faith was found in the unseen reality of the world around him. He was taken into ‘another’. Paul would call this the ‘heavenly realms’ in Ephesians. Abraham teaches us to trust despite no evidence.

Keep believing even if the reality if not what the promise we have been given. That’s it.

We now move into reading an amazing and well-known story of Abraham and Sarah. Paul uses the story of Abraham and Sarah to demonstrate that just as God fulfilled His promise to miraculously bring children to them and actually ‘many nations’ He has also again created out of nothing the faith found in Gentile believers.

Of course this story isn’t perfect. Abraham made mistakes. But he kept bouncing back and got back on track with his faith in God’s promise. That is why God credited his faith as righteousness. Abraham held onto the conviction in God’s promise and acted on that promise. This is the faith Paul is speaking of. This is our faith.

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.” The words “it was credited to him” were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness—for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.” (Romans 4 v 18-25)

At a prayer gathering this week a Pastor described his church as in a time of enduring. They are going through difficult times. This position is a place of faith. Great faith is the faith that endures.
To please God we need to believe He exists even when it looks like He doesn’t. To believe He isn’t a million miles away even when it feels like He is. To believe He is with you even when there is little to show for it.
The pressures of your life can be the evidence of God’s work in your life.
The presence of God is more important than the answers of God.