Jesus said, "Be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life"
Paul wrote along similar lines... "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but to all who have loved his appearing"
Sometimes Christians are required to die for their faith. For most of us, however, we are required only to maintain our faith until we die. This is not such a big ask, when the Lord has been so wonderful to us, and when he helps us
In this lesson we look at
Romans chapter eight. This chapter may be divided into six sections. The last verse of each section states the section's main principle in a nutshell. Each of these six principles helps us to have an abundant life in Christ, and to be
A-GRADE LIVING
If you wanted a mechanic to fix your car, what kind of mechanic would you rather have, a qualified
Imagine I offered you a thousand dollars to deliver an important parcel to Alice Springs by midnight. Your first thought would probably be, "What's the best way for me to get to Alice tonight?" You would not, for example, say, "I wonder if they grow tulips in Alice?" You would need to ask the right question, and get
To live life abundantly, you must get your asks and your answers right. In the nutshell statement for this section
Why are you alive in this world? To become a son of God. How can you achieve this? By following the leadership of God's Spirit. There you have the greatest questions you could ever ask, and
The greatest problem in our lives is sin, and the condemnation that it brings upon us. Until we have the answer to that problem, we cannot have an abundant life, because we are condemned to death, being cut off from God's
Now let's summarise the other verses
Jesus condemned sin in mankind, just as God's law has always done. But Jesus did what the law could not do by itself: Jesus provided an answer to the condemnation. He died for our sins and arose from the dead, that we might have life through forgiveness in Him. Even though we must still endure the death of our physical bodies, that too will be overcome in the end by our resurrection from the dead. Jesus certainly gives us the
By yielding to God's Spirit, by accepting and following the answers that Jesus provides, God's Spirit lives in us. So we live, and live abundantly. Otherwise we die
We would all agree, I'm sure, that the right attitude toward life and its problems is of the utmost importance. You may remember the story of the two shoe salesmen who were sent to a tropical island where everybody went barefoot. One salesman came back defeated. "There's no market for shoes on this island --nobody there wears shoes". The other salesman came back successful. "This island is a shoe salesman's paradise. Everybody there needs shoes!" The attitudes made
In the nutshell statement of this section
In the opening verse of this section
This is the right outlook on life: we are children of our Father, and joint heirs with Christ, who, after he had suffered was glorified. This is a powerful attitude that completely changes
This section addresses our expectations. Most of us would agree that, next to attitudes, expectations go along way to giving quality to life. You have to have hope, you have to believe you are getting somewhere and achieving
Imagine you hear strange noises underground in your garden. When you dig down to investigate, you find, to your surprise, a gentleman digging a tunnel. When you ask him where he is digging the tunnel to, or what is he hoping to find, he says, "I dunno mate, I got no reason, I'm just digging a tunnel." He would have to be a sad case, this gentleman. If he were hoping to find gold, or to escape from prison, if he had some expectation, you could perhaps think him sane. But if he anticipates nothing in digging this tunnel,
I am no expert on the problem of suicide, and I don't know why some people kill themselves. But perhaps in some cases it is because they anticipate nothing in digging the tunnel of life, and they cannot live with that
In the nutshell statement of this section
It's our choice whether we live in glorious hope or futile hopelessness.
Attitude and anticipation have to be expressed in action. There is much that a person can do in the here and now to improve life. But perhaps one action stands out above all others.
In the nutshell statement of this section
In the opening verse of this section, Paul speaks of how the Spirit helps us in our weakness by his intercession for us when we pray. As we pray, he prays with us, and the ineffectual and imperfect prayers we offer are made perfect and effectual
When we pray, the Spirit of God searches our hearts. We do not rely on our own mere words, but on the great mind of the Spirit, to take our innermost needs to God
Every great goal must be reduced to smaller intermediate goals, which I like to think of as stations. A train stops at many stations before reaching the destination. The arrival at each station is evidence of progress toward the goal. The achievement of each minor goal moves us closer to the achievement
In the nutshell statement for this section
An attitude of confidence, or assurance, is so important that it is treated as separate principle. In the first verse of this section
If we can live with this assurance, then we can live abundantly, and be faithful