Life Through the Spirit

 Today we move to the New Testament, where believers in Jesus are learning about the gift they have already received in the Holy Spirit. As you study this passage, take your time, and note all of the things that Paul (the author of Romans) is promising to those who have the Holy Spirit. Reflect on your own experience of the work of the Holy Spirit and ask God to invite you into a deeper experience of the Spirit’s work in your life.

STUDY THE SCRIPTURE

Click here to access the reading from Romans 8:1-17

 

REFLECTION

 

Promises Fulfilled

by Kelsey Bacon

 

What a passage. There is so much goodness packed in these verses, so much truth about the Spirit, about who God is and what he provides for us. During this Christmas season, I’ve been thinking a lot about the promises of God. In Luke 1, the angel comes to Mary and delivers a lot of really big promises from God. God promises to send his Son, he promises that Mary will become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit, and he promises that the Son of God Mary births will be the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and his reign will last forever.

 

As I studied this story, seeing how God fulfilled all these promises, I challenged myself to trust in all of God’s promises to me, and that made me think: what all does God promise? And then this passage was dropped in my lap, a passage full of the promises of God. Here is what God promises to those who are in him, according to Romans 8:1-17. Read these and take them in, taking time to process that all of these statements are true for you in your life right now.

·       You are not condemned for your sin but forgiven through Christ

·       The Holy Spirit lives and works in you

·       You belong to Christ Jesus

·       You have new life, every day, no matter what sin you have committed, because Jesus is righteous

·       You are a child of God, adopted into his family forever

·       You are an heir to the inheritance of eternal life and eternal glory in heaven, and you share this inheritance with Jesus himself

 

So many beautiful promises, and so much truth. Yet, in these gospel promises, the law still does exist. Paul writes, “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live” (8:13). This, my friends, is still the law at work in our lives. The gospel does not ask us to do anything; the gospel is about who Jesus is and what Jesus does. But even as saved Christians, the law still exists to correct and guide us. It is important to heed Paul’s correction and guidance, and as we try and fail to heed, remember the promise: we belong to Christ, we have new life every day, we are adopted, forgiven, and free.

 

Read over that list of promises again, or reread the passage entirely, and then take a moment to think about how God has fulfilled those promises in your life.

1. How have you seen the Holy Spirit renew your life?

2. How have you felt belonging in Christ?

3. Where have you seen the Holy Spirit at work in you and around you?

 

Reflect on these questions, pray, and give thanks to Jesus for his saving work in your life, and ask the Spirit to continue to guide and correct you to walk in true life with him.

 

UALC’S CAMPAIGN OF PRAYER

 

THURSDAY: LIFE - Lord God Almighty, we lament the current distress of our nation and we ask for your intervention. We implore you that every precious life would be protected – lives of minorities, lives of the unborn, lives of the hopeless, lives of the mentally ill, lives with deep roots in this land, lives who have recently arrived -- each and every precious life for whom You gave Your precious life.