Friday, May 1, 2026

Opening Scripture

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

Opening Prayer

Gracious Father, open my heart and mind to your unending love and transforming power. Stir my heart’s devotion to the Lord Jesus. Prompt my mind’s submission to the Spirit’s leading. Help me to desire your presence above all things. May your loving kindness flow over me and through me to those I encounter. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

Romans 8:31-39

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Reflection  

It’s good to be reminded that God’s plan of salvation for His people stretches from eternity past to eternity future. God determined before the creation of the universe what He intended to do with humanity, and He is accomplishing it all perfectly.

In light of this reality, Paul asks a series of rhetorical questions to drive the point home. Based on everything he has shared in his letter so far, Paul asks, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things?” Any combination of gratitude, admiration, and awestruck wonder would be appropriate.

“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Certainly, Satan and the forces of evil are trying to destroy the Church. The ungodly systems and sinful structures of the world exist in opposition to what God is doing. However, nothing can thwart God’s eternal purpose through His people. Jesus has already been declared victorious!

God demonstrated His full commitment to this redemption plan by sending Jesus to die for us. “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Having already made the supreme sacrifice, God will certainly provide everything else we need for our sanctification. “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3).

Paul shifts to a legal context by asking who might make a formal accusation against followers of Jesus in court. “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?” Again, Satan is “the Accuser” of all Christians, but he has been defeated and will ultimately be destroyed.

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: ‘Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death’” (Revelation 12:10-11).

While Satan is correct about a believer’s guilt and sin, the Righteous Judge has dismissed the charges because “it is God who justifies.” In fact, the One who gave His life to pay the debt for our sin “is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” The next time Satan points his bony finger of accusation declaring your guilt, don’t argue. Agree with him. Then remind him of Jesus’ sacrifice on your behalf. Hallelujah!

Well, then, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” On the basis of Christ’s perfect love for us (rather than our imperfect love for Him), the answer is, “No one and nothing!” Of course, in this fallen world, we will face trouble and hardship. Paul provides a list of some challenges, all of which he had dealt with personally (2 Corinthians 11:23-28).

These hardships do NOT separate us from the love of Christ. Instead, they are part of the “all things” Paul referred to just a few verses previously (Romans 8:28). God can use that suffering to strengthen our faith and make us more like Jesus. In all these adversities, rather than being separated from Christ’s love, we are more than conquerors.

Paul finishes today’s passage with a flare! In a superlative summation, he appeals to the extremes to drive home his conviction that nothing in all creation can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen!

Flourishing Habit

Character and Virtue

Last Sunday’s sermon was entitled: Formed for Flourishing! The text was Romans 12:1-2 (which we will explore more fully tomorrow). Today, I want us to think for a moment about what’s involved in “the renewing of your mind.”

In After You Believe, N.T. Wright offers these insights. “Paul frames the command to be transformed within the call to priestly worship. We are to offer sacrifices; we are to worship the living God in the true and living way. The sacrifices in question, exactly as in Romans 8, are our whole selves. We come into the Temple not just as worshippers but as sacrifices.

“Paul wants all Christians to have their minds renewed, so that they can think in a different way. We all face many challenges, not only in the sphere of morality as such, but in a thousand different contexts. It won’t do simply to go into autopilot and hope to get through somehow.

“We have to be able to think about what to do – what to do with our whole lives, and what to do in the sudden crisis that faces us this very minute. Being trained to think ‘Christianly’ is the necessary antidote to what will otherwise happen: being, as Paul says, ‘squeezed into the shape dictated by the present age.’

“‘The way the world is’ is a powerful, insidious force, and it takes all the energy of new creation, not least of faith and hope, to remind oneself that the age to come really is already here, with all its new possibilities and prospects.

“The antidote to the present age, then, is to have the mind renewed so that one can think clearly about the way of life which is pleasing to God, which is in accordance with God’s will. This renewal of the mind is at the center of the renewal of the whole human being.

“The mind that is renewed will learn the habit of clear, wise thinking and approval. The ‘unfit’ mind is, in Romans 1, the root from which a whole host of evil things grow. It isn’t the case that the body leads the mind or heart astray. Rather, the failure to worship the one true God leads to a failure to think, and thence a failure to act as a fully human being ought.

“The more genuinely spiritual you are, the more clearly and accurately and carefully you will think, particularly about what the completed goal of your Christian journey will be and hence what steps you should be taking, what habits you should be acquiring, as part of the journey toward that goal, right now.”

What shall you say, then, in response to these things?

Are you letting anything separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

How might you live as “more than a conqueror” through Him who loves you today?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!