From The Editor’s Desk
The events of the world have always been creating confusion in the minds of people. Natural disasters, man made disasters, epidemics and other calamities are growing in the world in a rapid phase. Sicknesses or the departure of the dear ones can devastate people. Even in the midst of these unprecedented events, some people are still greedy, selfish, corrupt and run a lifestyle completely against morality and the disciplines ordained by God. Devil continues to work in the minds of people and leading them to every types of filthy lifestyles under the sun. Educational institutions are corrupting the minds of the next generation. It used to be in college levels and now unfortunately penetrated to schools. Liberal minded politicians and law makers are not hesitant to approve any type of immoral and unethical practices for the people who love sin. These situations can create confusion and fear in the minds of the children of God too. They are also becoming doubtful about the future and also get anxious about the future generation. It’s a very difficult struggle. Living a righteous life has now become a big challenge.
If we have God in our lives, we must consider these challenges are needed for us to grow in faith with an assured hope. Our eyes will be set on Christ, our hope will be for the presence of God and we will strive to take our eyes away from the world. We will ignore the fleeting passions of this life but welcome the trials of our lives and will be content to accomplish our mission and responsibilities in the world and take our refuge and shelter in God and rest in the hope of eternal life.
Romans 8:17 says we are children of God and join hires with Christ. It was necessary for Christ to be born in this world to give us the escape path from our sins and make us His joint heirs. The fascinating thing is none of these are gained by any of our merits but by the grace of God. Ephesians 2:1 “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins”. He gave us a new life. When we are in Christ, we become a new creation. He released us from the bondage of sin, given us freedom, and also, we have received the Spirit of adoption. We are able to call God, who was unreachable for us, now ‘Abba Father”. We are born in Him and are joint heirs with Christ. So, our sufferings in this world are our partaking of His sufferings so that we may also be glorified. He suffered and left an example for us to follow.
What are these sufferings/trials? Apostle James says (James 1:2-4) they come in various shapes and forms. When we commit our lives to the Lord, we become useful for others. We kill our selfish desires and will start laboring for the benefit of others and through that we will fulfill the love of God in this world. We will be light in the world and through that light we will expose the deeds of darkness. (Ephesians 5:11). For the children of God, it will be an experience of formation of Christ in them. In Gal 4:19 Paul says he has pain like childbirth until christ be formed in the belivers. Recognizing the trials of our lives and staying within the plan of God is the will of God concerning to a believer. The sufferings at the present time is in the anticipation of a future glory.
Let us consider today Paul’s epistle to Romans 8,
In Romans 8:18 Paul wrote “present sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”. It is a waste of time to do a comparison. It is not something of equal measure to be compared. Sufferings in our earthen vessels in a sin cursed world cannot be compared with a magnificent glory, of which is eternal and to be revealed in us. It is not something as we can see now, it is to be revealed in us in the future. From the time of our new birth in Christ, we are duty bound to accomplish the task the Lord has entrusted with us. The fleshly desires and the passions of life are to be given up and we must drive to be conformed to His image. We must give up our old lifestyle and conduct our walk worthy of the call we received. Even though it’s is not practical for us to have a complete freedom from sin as we live in flesh, our aim must be for an active participation in the sanctification process and the plan of God for us.
Paul continues his epistle to Romans with great emotion and encouraging them by saying you are not alone in this process of suffering and waiting. God has not left His children alone. We have company to suffer and groan with us. The created world and also the Spirit of God who is present in us are groaning with us as we eagerly waiting for the escape from this corrupted world to that glorious presence of God
- Creation
Romans 8:19-21 – The creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God.
The entire creation of God has been in distress and waiting anxiously. Sun, moon, stars and the heavens, earth and everything on the earth, plants, animals and every creature is eagerly waiting for one thing. it is the revealing of the sons of God.
John makes a statement in (1 John 3:2) Beloved, now we are children of God: and it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed we shall be like Him, for we shall see him as He is”.
We read in Romans “The creation is subjected to futility (vanity, uselessness, pointlessness). It is subjected to futility, not willingly but subjected /by force. When Adam sinned, the curse was on the creation as well. (Gen 3:17) “cursed is the ground for your sake”. Creation itself wants to be released from this curse. That happens only at the revealing of the sons of God”. The creation also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. At present it is under decay and corruption. The creation awaits in “hope” to be moved into the glorious liberty of the children of God. It is fascinating to think that the entire universe is also participating in the awaiting process for the people of God. The whole creation, groans and labor with birth pangs together until now. When we look outside, from the nature we should recognize the presence of God, when the storm comes, when the thunder and lightning occurs, when the rain pours, when the ocean’s wave go high and low, when the earth trembles, when the mountains shake, all are birth pangs. Creation groans and labors. It is like the pain of a woman having birth.
- We, the children of God)
Romans 8:23-25
“And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
Those who are regenerated by God through the faith in Jesus Christ, will have the first fruits of the Spirit”. It is by the Spirit of God, we are regenerated. Our spiritual DNA is from the Holy Spirit. So, we have the first fruits in us. The realization of our sinful nature and the acknowledgement of our horrible condition made us to repent. When God shows His kindness to a sinner that person gets the ability to repent. Repentance is one of the first fruits. Then faith is activated in him. Faith given to us by God and it is through faith we are regenerated. Once we have the new life in us, we will rest up on the wonderful hope for a future. It is a guaranteed hope and we conduct our lives on earth by the heavenly hope. Fruit of joy is another fruit a believer will have. We rejoice because of the new life we have, and we will have the hunger for the word of God. A child of God must be always hungry and thirsty and must desire the pure milk “The Word of God”. It nourishes and cherishes us. The overwhelming love towards fellow belivers and love towards God are the fruits that a child of God constantly bears. We love God with the whole heart, soul, mind and strength. These are the first fruits produced in us by the work of the Holy Spirit.
The world around us know us by these fruits. Our identity is these first fruits. Here Paul states “we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body”. We know that we are in Christ, but since we possess our flesh, we still show the nature of the flesh. It is a true reality that our new life is wrapped in an old body. We become sensitive about sin. We groan and morn about our sinful nature. As we continue to meditate the word of God, as His light shines in us we become more aware about our impurities. We long for a pure life without sin. We eagerly wait for our adoption. We are heavily citizens and ambassadors in this world. We have a ministry here, but we do it with fear and trembling. We long for our savior to come and free us from this life’s sin and death. Paul says in Romans 7:24-25 “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! Just like apostle Paul, we all groan for the redemption of our bodies.
We received salvation with an assured hope that we will have redeemed bodies, and we will be adopted into the heavenly places. Jesus said in John14:1-4 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.” Yes, indeed the way is known to us too. The narrow way which was consecrated by God through His Son and our savior Jesus Christ and through that way we are guaranteed to be in His presence with our redeemed bodies.
This hope is called real hope as it is our awaiting with confidence for something that we haven’t seen. (1 Corinthians 2:9-11) But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”- these things God has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God”. We eagerly wait for the redemption of our bodies and its adoption with perseverance. (Romans 5:1-5) 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” In Philippines 3:20-21 Paul wrote “ But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
The wonderful helper (The Holy Spirit): Romans 8:26-27
In our fleshly life our cry and supplications to God are sometimes not in the will of God. We have been given a helper to be with us in this wilderness journey who understands our minds and thoughts of our hearts. It is so comforting to know that our God is even concerned about our communication with him. A holy God who in heavens is unapproachable, but because we are His children, we can approach Him with confidence even with our infirmities, because we are redeemed by His beloved Son’s blood and also our prayers are monitored and filtered by the Holy Spirit.
(Romans 8:26-27) “Likewise, the Spirit also helps in our weakness” – What a glorious gift we have in us. God himself helps us. In John14:15-18 Jesus Christ promised the disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” Jesus never left us alone here. The presence of God is always with His Children. Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance Ephesians 1:13-14. The Holy Spirit is the seal of our inheritance. Romans 5:5 “and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
The Spirit of God helps in our weakness. We are in our weak bodies. Our spirit is new. A new man is created in us by God. But we have an old body. In this body, we do not even know how to pray to God. Most of the time our prayers are not in line with God’s will. Our requests are mostly childish. If our request is not in the will of God, God will never give it to us, which is really his abundant grace. We often do prayers in our own name, not in the name of Jesus. Not for the glory of God. Jesus said in John 14:13 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. Both the Father and Son must be glorified even in the matter of our prayers. Here the Holy Spirit helps us in filtering our needs. The Spirit makes intercession for us with ‘groaning’ that cannot be uttered. The language /voice of the spirit cannot uttered/heard. In our physical, weak bodies, we are incapable to tolerate those utterances. Apostle Paul was terrified even to write about his personal experience indicated in 2Corinthians 12:2-6. In vs. 4 he says, “how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which is not lawful for man to utter”.
The Spirit of God searches the inside of the hearts of the fleshly man and in the meantime, He is the only one who knows the heart of God. The spirit of God makes the connection and that is the wonderful grace of God. We would have been hopeless without that help. Our faith is strong as rock because God does everything based on His will. At the end of the day, all glory goes to Him. The ministry of Holy Spirit is a fascinating ministry in this world for the sake of the body /the bride of Christ the “Church”. The final salvation of believers is His desire and passion. For that the Holy Spirit is submissive in the trinity plan but in the meantime groans for the escape and future Kingdom. In Ephesians 4:30 we read “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption”. That seal is for redemption. No doubt why He groans for us. Freeing us from our weaknesses is His aim.
Romans 8:28-30 “And We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. To whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethern. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called: whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified. We are always at oh and wonder when we think about the sovereignty of God almighty. His plan and purpose in mere human beings like us is unfathomable. The measuring scale inside us is our response to his will and our unwavering love towards God. By our deep love and devotion to God, we understand that we are called. We ourselves have to reconcile inside of us our love and His calling. This should meet together. Then we will be able to know the full plan of God. He foreknew us, with deep intimate knowledge. He knew His sheep individually by name. By this intimate knowledge He predestined us to be conformed to the image of His son. God made his Son and our savior the firstborn among many brethern. His resurrection gave us assurance because He never experienced decay and through that we also will have a glorious body. Those who are predestined, he called them by his word and faith is given to them, the called ones are justified on the basis of His Son’s finished work on the cross. And those who are justified, He glorified too. We are positionally glorified. But since, we are in the body, we haven’t seen the full glorification yet. That is why everything on earth in God’s plan are groaning in anticipation for the redemption. The redemption of the bodies of God’s loving children!!