The Greatest Gift!

Romans 8:9-11
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[d] 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[e] his Spirit who lives in you.

 As Paul moves toward application of the doctrine he has laid out in the first chapters, he focuses on the person and role of the Holy Spirit.  Before Jesus left he told his disciples, "It is good for me to go, because if I do I will send you my Holy Spirit to be with you."  John 16:7

 Paul gives us a better understanding of the Holy Spirit and how the Spirit lives within us.  Importantly he is the Spirit of Christ. Paul also calls him the Spirit of God.  Classic theology tells us that the Holy Spirit flows from the fellowship of the Triune God, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  Each person of the Trinity is God, but also are unique in the role they play in matters of life, faith and salvation.  The Father creates.  The Son redeems.  The Spirit sustains.

 So what does this mean for us?  We are born again of the Spirit through faith in Christ.  The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples on Pentecost. The Spirit resides within us and sustains our faith and empowers us to a life that pleases God.  And as the passage says, "The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you." 

 Our faith life starts with the Holy Spirit convicting us of our need for Christ.  When we receive Christ and His Word, we are born again by his Spirit.  The life we now live we live is by the Spirit.  As Paul says in this chapter, "If we live by the Spirit, we will not have to gratify the desires of the flesh.  We can be free of the power of sin to live a new life.  The life we were intended to live.  When we do not know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with words we do not even understand ourselves.  

 Thank God for the Holy Spirit.  The greatest gift we could ever receive!  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Acts 22 - Paul Sees the Light

Image
6  “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.   7  I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me,  ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’  8  “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.  “  ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth,  whom you are persecuting,’  he replied.   9  My companions saw the light,  but they did not understand the voice  of him who was speaking to me.  10  “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked. “  ‘Get up,’  the Lord said,  ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do. This is the famous story of the apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus.  Paul was going there to persecute Jewish Christians and throw them into prison and he meets Jesus is a spectacular way.  Not only is he blinded by a briliant light, but he hears the Lord's voice audibly.  And the Lord asks him, "Lord, Lord why are you persecuting me!"  Paul thought he was serving the Lord, but he was persecuting him b
Read more

2 Timothy 4 - Fight the Good Fight! Finish the Race!

Click Here to Read or Listen to 2 Timothy 4 4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. Paul gives a closing charge to Timothy. First of all, he is to preach the word. God's Word speaks to all situations and seasons. The Word of God will sometimes correct us. Our lives can get of out alignment with God's will as outlined in
Read more

Hebrews 6 - Have You Graduated From Elementary School of Faith Yet?

Click Here to Read or Listen to Hebrews 6 6 Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, 2 instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3 And God permitting, we will do so. The author once again picks up with the theme of moving on to Christian maturity.  He teaches them to move on from the "elementary" teachings about Christ. What does he mean by that?  He gives clues by citing repentance, faith, cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, and teaching on the judgment and resurrection from the dead. We might call these the basics of the Christian faith. If you read through the Apostle's Creed, which our church confesses in our 8am service, it contains many of these core doctrines.  Click here to see the Apostle's Creed Written Around “When we consider the
Read more