July 21

“And hath raised us up together…” Ephesians 2:6

Our status as to our spiritual condition was officially ‘dead’! The wages of sin is death, and there is no human who is not affected by this tenebrous influence. The Bible proclaims that ‘..all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God”. This makes our human destiny a dark one indeed, were it not for the light of God’s love and grace! God has made a way to raise us from the dead! When we come to the salvation He has provided, that is, we accept the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary, and participate in His death, burial and resurrection, we pass from death to life! We are raised together with Christ! In His victory over sin and death, we find our victory also! We overcome death, sin and the world, because He overcame them. It is the only solution to the sin/death problem which plagues the human family.  This is the ‘good’ news of the gospel, that while in our natural state, we are the inheritors of death, Jesus made a way to give us life, and that more abundantly! It is strange how so few comparatively, choose to have life instead of settling for eternal death. Logic and wisdom would seem to make it a simple choice, but because it requires faith to believe that God means what He says (and for many to believe He even exists in the first place!), not so many choose life. Those who do believe and accept in faith what God has given discover the wonder and blessing of His truth! They become alive where they were spiritually dead, and awake to the reality of all that God has in store for His followers. Maybe some stumble at the simplicity of the gospel. They might feel that if God had demanded some difficult task, such as climbing a high mountain or killing a beast with their bare hands, in order to obtain salvation, it may be more credible. They miss the point that God wants to make salvation available to all, and that means all must be able to come to salvation the same way. The one thing that all humans can do, regardless of age, opportunity, ability or background, is believe! God has put in all humans ‘the measure of faith’, that is, the ability to believe. Ultimately man could not do anything of his own anyway, no matter how great the exploit, to purchase his personal salvation. Only Christ’s sinless life was an apt sacrifice for sin. Jesus gave His life freely; He did it for all humanity, and that is why faith and not our own provision, is essential! Why should we remain dead in trespasses and sins, when Jesus has made a way to resurrect us and give us life eternal? Let us allow God to work in us, and through the faith He has given us, accept the loving gift of salvation, that we may be born again, resurrected and inheritors with Christ of eternity.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

June 3

“For he that is dead is freed from sin” Romans 6:7

In beautiful language of parallels, Paul teaches believers at Rome, that the death of the flesh, the ‘old man’, is a necessary part of Christian life! in days when the relationship between slave and master was still a commonplace thing, it was not difficult to understand, that upon dying, the slave was no longer under the control or dictates of his earthly master. He escaped those constraints, and was freed from them. Paul alludes to that fact by pointing out that when we are in Christ, we are ‘dead to sin’, which was our master and enslaved us, and this ‘death’ is actually a freedom from sin, and the liberty to live the resurrected life in Jesus Christ. This is one of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith - that true life is found in death! When we come to salvation, we accept through faith that being baptised is a necessary part of entering into our new life in Christ. It is by this act of faith that we identify with the burial of Jesus Christ. Clearly only ‘dead’ people are buried! When we repent of our sins, we die to self and our own ways, recognising that God’s ways are right and choose them for ourselves. Now ‘dead’, we are then ‘buried’ in water, by baptism, in the name given for salvation (Acts 4:12), which is the name of Jesus, identifying with His death and burial. The scriptures say that “we are buried with Him by baptism into death” (Rom 6:4). Finally we rise to a new life in Christ, when we are filled with His Holy Spirit, spiritually participating in His resurrection! Now cleansed and free from the sin of our past life, we stand spiritually alive in Christ, but dead to sin! As long as this status and balance exists, we remain alive in the Spirit, aligned with God and progressing towards eternal life in heaven with Christ! The entire effort of Christian life is to maintain this now holy, new and consecrated life we have in Jesus, free from sin. According to our text, our best defence against the destructive, enslaving ravages of sin is to be ‘dead’! We must then determine to remain ‘dead’ to the flesh, - this means saying no and being inert to the world and to self; ‘dead’ to sin, - this means saying no to and resisting temptation and sin; ‘dead’ in Christ, - this means yielding to Him, without our own agenda, but desiring only to fulfil His ways and will, so we can continue to be alive in Him! God’s Word makes it clear that Christian living is not for the faint hearted, cowardly or timorous, but for the obedient, determined and faithful!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Apr 5

“So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the LORD…” 1 Chronicles 10:13

The Bible directs us to live our lives for God in His strength. Without His Spirit, our own efforts will result in weakness and failure. Saul ceased early to lean on God. His pride played on his emotions, and he became churlish towards life, foolish in his behaviour and careless in his obedience to God. We may not place a great deal of importance on our transgressions, and dismiss or trivialise our sins against God, but if they remain un-repented of, they will cause the demise of our moral being, and eventually result in spiritual and eternal death. The scripture is clear, Saul died for his transgression against Yahwah. Saul was guilty of a number of gross sins, for which the Bible does not tell us, he ever repented. He usurped the command of God, in the matter of the battle against the Amalekites; unjustly pursued David, an innocent man, determined to kill him; commanded the senseless slaughter of an innocent priest of God, and sought help from a woman practicing the occult to find direction in life! He flew in God’s face with his transgression, and remained at variance with God. Even if at times he was emotionally stirred, it was but a temporary reprieve to his habit of disregarding God’s law. All sin is worthy of death, and there is in essence, no sin greater than another when it comes to its final result, but it is sin for which we remain un-repented that will cause us to die the second death. Saul’s departure from this world, was a dishonourable death, not such as was worthy of a king and a man belonging to the people of God! While death is not of itself anything to be necessarily wanted or desired, it can nevertheless take place with honour, when it is the result of selfless sacrifice or service to the King of Kings! Unless the Lord returns beforehand, we will all die physically at some stage, but what will be the unwritten epitaph describing the real reason for our decease? Let us live for God in such a way, that when we die, even in death we may bring glory to the Lord and be a memory of the sweet savour of His grace and of godly faithful service unto Jesus.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion