December 2 – What Makes the Difference?
By Audrey Bauman
Before you start reading, I want to give you a quick summary of the main idea of these verses. They talk about the difference between living without Christ and belonging to Christ. The big difference is the Holy Spirit who is living in you now that you have accepted Christ and His sacrifice for you. You have admitted that you have a sinful nature and need a Saviour. These verses are NOT saying that you need to control that sinful nature on your own. This is not about you doing all the work. It’s about realizing things have changed now that you have the new life talked about in the previous chapters.
Notice the first verse of this chapter. “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” That is what you need to keep in mind as you read.
Romans 8: 1 – 17 (NLT)
“So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. 2 And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death. 3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.
5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit. 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. 7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will. 8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
12 Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. 13 For if you live by its dictates, you will die. But if through the power of the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17 And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering.”
The first 4 verses stress the idea that God has ended the control our natural sinful nature has over us. “The power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin” (verse 2) tells you that.
Verses 5 to 8 talk about the person who is not a Christ follower. Their minds are dominated by wrong thoughts and motivations. That is not the case for those who belong to Christ. Starting at verse 9, read again what the Bible says:
“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life because you have been made right with God. The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you.” (verses 9 to 11)
Once again. Paul stresses that the Holy Spirit has changed everything in our everyday lives. Even more - “And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.” (verse 11) – some day we will have our mortal bodies resurrected as well. There is life after death.
I love verses 14 to 17. When we accept Christ as our personal Saviour, we are adopted by God. We have every right to call Him, Father. The Spirit within us creates that bond with our Heavenly Father so that we really desire to please Him and live the creative, productive lives He wants for us.
So why do these verses mean so much to me? I suspect we all have a tendency to think that we’re not as good as we think we should be. We often think we should have tried harder to do better. Now I’m not saying that we should be lazy and not care about what we are doing. But, we can be so thankful that our lives are not dependent on our accomplishments alone. God has taken care of all the messed up things we’ve done. Even better, His Spirit lives in us guiding us and giving us the strength to live well. The fact that we have access to Someone far better and stronger than us encourages us to take ‘risks’ that we might not do on our own. (Like writing these devotions.)
So as you sit at LSA on a Sunday morning, pay attention to the idea that pops into your head about inviting that person for coffee. Maybe it’s just the idea that you should turn to someone you don’t usually talk with and strike up a conversation. Or maybe you keep thinking about a neighbour you should make some connection with. Or maybe you get a nudge to help out in some way at the church. I don’t know what those ideas might be that flit across your mind, but be aware that the Holy Spirit is actively involved in your life and helping you to bring God’s love to those around you.
Our song for today is Control (Somehow You Want Me) by Tenth Avenue North.